My toxic trait is I hold terrible grudges against the inevitable, natural evolution of any specific ur-meme source phrase/image/template into a less specific or precise or elegant but more memorable and generalizable popular meme format.
I know I am wildly unreasonable about this -- and often probably even mistaken about the evolution and just clinging to some early-but-not-original variant that was my first encounter -- and so mostly keep it to my grink-y ass self because don't be that guy.
I was thinking about the Anakin/Padme meme in particular just now; an early variant I saw, before it was eeeeverywhere, paced it better than most versions I've seen since. But it may well not have been the initial form.
Key feature of my preferred form is a jokey negative in Padme's first response, e.g.:
ANAKIN, smiling: I'm going to do [ambiguous thing]
PADME, jokingly chummily: But not [bad version of thing]
ANAKIN, smiling darkly: ...
PADME, suddenly serious: ...but not [bad thing], right?
The more generalized form, with less punch but easier to digest and remember and rewrite, has that second panel with Padme's initial response a bit more thudding:
either:
PADME, joking chummily: But not [bad thing], right?
or
PADME, joking chummily: so [good thing], right?
And it's subtle (I know I'm being unreasonble!), but by frontloading the "right?" into her first utterance, it robs her second utterance of the extra punch of that suddenly-worried "...RIGHT?!" beat.
Because that's what makes it really land for me. The popular version jumps straight to the panicked reveal, baked into the notionally joking first reply.
My preferred form keeps the whole narrative flow of someone not realizing that their joke isn't a joke. It has full-on character development and reveals a sudden terrible shift in understanding.
The popular form gets to the meat quicker, which is an adaptability trait for sure. But it's more blunt and the corners are rounded off. Bah!
@joshmillard @taz I think it was Flying Meat's Acorn that I'd heard good things about, but it's been quite a while.
Also: meme generators. https://imgflip.com/memegenerator/322841258/Anakin-Padme-4-Panel
@joshmillard
AI, gimme two versions with things only Gen Z would know.
ANAKIN, smiling: I'm going to do the TikTok dance.
PADME, jokingly chummily: But not the Floss, right?
ANAKIN, smiling darkly: ...
PADME, suddenly serious: ...but not the Floss, right?
ANAKIN, smiling: I'm going to do the Shiggy challenge.
PADME, jokingly chummily: But not the In My Feelings challenge, right?
ANAKIN, smiling darkly: ...
PADME, suddenly serious: ...but not the In My Feelings challenge, right?
Josh "cortex" Millard
Stuart Houghton
James Young
taz
Chauncey Yaunders
AceOfWaggery
JB