Reviewing Terrible Memes From TV And Movies (I Hate This So Much)

Get Surfshark VPN at surfshark.deal... - Enter promo code TOMSKAFRIENDS for 83% off + 3 months for FREE!
Let's take an utterly unhinged deep dive into the ways traditional media fails to understand memes and internet culture!
Full Gregory Brothers interview ( • Interview With The Gre... )
Join our Patreon to get early access and extra content ( / tomskaandfriends )
Edited by Kai Newton (‪@EquinoxPictures‬)
and Elliot Gough (‪@ItsElliotGough‬)
Research Assistance and Additional Graphics by Eddie Bowley (‪@eddache‬)
Ad Graphics by Rhys ( / apothael )
and Matt Ley (‪@Thelaserbearguy‬)
Merch (sharkrobot.com/...)
Twitter ( / thetomska )
Reddit ( / tomska )
P.O. Box!
Thomas "TomSka" Ridgewell
Suite 62
81 Lee High Road
Lewisham
SE13 5NS
United Kingdom

[@wasvreta]

nothing quite as painful as companies in the early 2010s trying to pander to meme people

[@Erki445]

Meme people?? 🥲

[@adamsharar8166]

Even nowadays

[@Vegas242]

Yeah, companies have maybe gotten a little better at it, but it's still really painful

[@CaptainHandsome]

I dunno, "Savage brand" twitter accounts are pretty fucking heinous

[@simonarmstrong3105]

Good thing silence, brand exists

[@gamefan1019]

Every time a meme dies out, it is reborn one level of satire and irony down. The media just plays memes too straight.

[@couchpotato2222]

So what's rock-bottom on the scale of satire and irony?

[@bryztoe8754]

​@@couchpotato2222 there is no bottom

[@BadgerStyler]

@@couchpotato2222 It circles back around to being sincere again and the cycle restarts

[@ceptemzorpus]

@@BadgerStyler Best example of this has gotta be troll face. Got degraded so hard 10 years later that it really just circled around to being sincere.

[@emeraldemperor2601]

@@couchpotato2222 It circles back around

[@GrouchyRaccoon]

The fact that there are yet still untapped depths of how unhinged the Surfshark ads can get just astounds me.

[@daanwilmer]

I had to stop after the ad, because it was brilliant. Peak ad art. Ard?

[@threovibfovuiab]

he is on to us, fire ze missiles!

[@adeen5438]

This was genius level writing and editing for that surfshark ad. Tom's best one yet imho

[@DrewSavo]

“We are on our 5th Eddie, and he hasn’t noticed.” That one got me looking back through Last Week to see if it was true!

[@theboysnextdoor4634]

The fact that surfshark is still working with tom, i thought the vid about surfshark would break their deal, but still going strong.

[@hugmonger]

Seeing TomSka transition from asdfmovies to "What if SarahZ was a 35 year old guy" is super funny

[@IsaacMayerCreativeWorks]

now we just need SarahZ to make short comedic animations

[@TheCappuccino04]

Eagerly awaiting for SarahZ to start making sketch comedy videos now

[@oliverparis3361]

When the guy said ''eats spicy goodness like a boss.'' I recoiled like someone was just run over by a train 3/4 of a meter away from me.

[@Zulf85]

I'm so sorry you and so many others had to discover that for the first time

[@autisticandproudsnephew3636]

I Like Trains

[@Kirschi__]

I had successfully repressed that trauma, but it came crashing down with such a force that I think one of my kidneys failed.

[@MewSnad]

I had successfully repressed it as well, seeing this terror in full view again was painful. My only solstice is that I have a deep-fried version of it where the only text on it is "DIES" on the bottom

[@ryanmorgan5507]

He didn't mention it in this video, but the most jarring one for me, especially looking back now, is the series SuperGirl quoting "Leroy Jenkins" while a character slides under a load of lasers. So cringey!

[@tacostyler]

With the Mitchell vs the Machines, it wasn't just that they started singing Numa Numa, it's that it probably WAS 2003 when Katie was singing it with her dad. The culmination of the whole movie is that Katie reached a understanding with her dad and even though he may not be on the same meme level as her, he's still trying.

[@eileensnow6153]

Also, they’re not just singing the Numa song, they’re singing the intro to Rihanna’s “Live Your Life”. Katie and her dad danced to this when she was a kid, and in this scene they finally do it again. It felt perfectly natural to me!

[@thestateofohio1707]

THANK YOU

[@jonaut5705]

Yeah honestly I thought that was perfectly great to me as well.

[@godricktheminecrafted3113]

Also, they could just be singing a song they like while beating the shit out of robots

[@DTP_Band]

The entire movie was just one big loveletter to 2010s and late 2000s Internet culture because that's kind of Katie's style of editing. There's plenty of great pop culture references aside from the memes, and overall its a pretty "exploitable" movie, and I think that was intentional.

[@MarioGMan25]

Okay to be fair the Numa Numa one in Mitchells vs. Machines was deliberately invoking a nostalgic meme because she liked that meme as a kid in the film. And like, I mean same. It had an "embrace the nostalgic cringe vibe" to that whole scene.

[@13mungoman13]

There's literally a scene earlier in the film where he tries to connect with her over Numa Numa and she says something to the effect of "It's not 2003 dad, I'm not a kid anymore"

[@whoisanarnb]

@@13mungoman13 exactly

[@Connarhea]

Great video Tom!

[@stephensmith7327]

I thought it was Live Your Life by TI and Rihanna

[@Santoryu90]

@@stephensmith7327 It was

[@table2.0]

21:36 I want to defend this- this song, not even just the meme version, was a cultural touch stone for many people who grew up in the 2000s like myself. We’d play that song in the car on holiday a lot and it was catchy and fun to try and sing along to despite not knowing the words A sweet family moment would be singing a song they both remember from when she was younger resonated with me as more of a reference and connecting moment than a meme or joke

[@eileensnow6153]

And, again, *it isn’t the Numa song,* it’s Live Your Life by Rihanna which features the Numa song in the intro!

[@soaringspirits2267]

Fr.

[@justanautisticnerd8969]

That was exactly what I was thinking. Yes in a way it was because of the creator using memes that he was way more familiar with but it makes alot of sense in the context of the movie. Like that dad is quite litteraly an old fart. Why would he reference a recent meme.

[@The-S-H3lf-Eater]

Did he even watch the bloody film?

[@Aluminumsfoil]

For a moment I thought “hold on, who put this guy in charge of memes?”, but then I remembered he made asdf. This guy WAS internet memes for me growing up.

[@wavewingman5993]

It really hit me reading this that yeah, if you were to attribute any one single person on the Internet to being the overlord of memes, it would fuckin probably be Tomska

[@piperformerlycassette]

@@wavewingman5993 He's also responsible for the horse mask thumbs up "I love it", the hole, and this one weird reaction GIF.

[@xXMindSoulXx]

also BAL MAN

[@DeathnoteBB]

@@wavewingman5993 KC Greene as well

[@LambSolo_]

@@wavewingman5993Id personally say it would be Niel

[@CacoQueen]

I really hope in the inevitable Ready Player 2 movie they keep the line "he went all Sonic.exe on them" just for the internet's reaction.

[@redymedy]

was... was that a line in the book?

[@Howitgoes799]

Bro then sonic .exed all over them. It was crazy

[@CacoQueen]

@@redymedy Y E S

[@hexagonPie]

@@CacoQueen What does that even mean?! 😭😭

[@rhysbaker2595]

@@hexagonPie It means blood poured from his eyes and he levitated off the ground slowly floating towards them as the sonic drowning theme played very loudly

[@tylerheineman2393]

I think the reason why memes made by these people are so unfunny is because they weren’t made to be funny but rather to relate to a younger demographic. It’s very surface level and clearly made without knowing why it’s funny. “Oh these young people like catchphrases and white text so we’ll just do that and nothing else”

[@leophyte9663]

...amogus tho

[@cerulity32k]

The reason they also don’t hit the same is because they’re made for a purpose. Memes are meant to be aimless, exponentially so with our humour. They’re good weird. Corporations making memes usually just advertise their products, which comes off as very bad weird.

[@vladimirirkhin]

@@cerulity32k the good weird and bad weird reminds of some video

[@Mr_Leo_DS]

​@@vladimirirkhinthe good weird, the bad weird and the ugly weird

[@hacim42]

On the Mitchells Numa Numa instance, I was recently at a BBQ where there were a number of younger people, like 10, and I heard one of them say "I like turtles", exactly like the kid. That video is 16 years old now, and kids who were born years after it was posted are still quoting it today. I think the way that younger people contextualize and consume older internet media isn't all that well understood.

[@emperorkiron3470]

"Why is that kid Hanging out the window" taken out of context this is actually a top tier shitpost. add some dumbass cartoon sound effects and I'll laugh for far too long.

[@littelcreatchure506]

just this comment made me start laughing

[@nathanharding5414]

I was looking for someone to say this. I thought the same thing. It's not funny in the way they want it to be but it's genuinely funny like 3 layers removed

[@sillyphyllic]

_I took it in context of Sayori-_

[@yourmother3217]

x13 vine boom sound effect

[@teddobomb9037]

Sorta like when you see an out of context drama post on Tik Tok

[@15oClock]

I like how Phineas & Ferb handled viral videos this. An old video of Doofenschmirtz falling into a toilet in his underwear, cape and roller-skates resurfaces and he builds a device to make everyone forget that video. I'm sure a lot of people would want to use it.

[@saltygibus5746]

And the best part, Perry basically just lets him. It's just Doof thinking of Aglets at the last second that foils his scheme.

[@JudithARobinson]

I watched that episode just the other day. The irony is that it's aglets I remember, and I always forget the viral video😂

[@angusperson4222]

@@JudithARobinson A G L E T don't forget it!!

[@BMBrooks09]

I'm so starved for quality content that I audibly laughed when he said "get sucked"

[@ThatTurboOwl]

You're not alone

[@MiotaLee]

He got me with the "who?" owl

[@heftylad]

"White guy Walter fuckin' loves cheese" got me at this point

[@Edh2002]

As soon as I read this comment it happend

[@alex.g7317]

😂

[@500werewolf]

Those forced memes by SNL physically hurt. I genuinely had to get up and take a walk.

[@afellowpotato]

I'm just replying so you can see how much likes you got

[@nobodyburgen4594]

A bunch of 30 year olds desperately trying to come up with a relevant sketch at 3 in the morning on a Wednesday, because the 65 year old host wanted a "meme sketch".

[@bradyweed4124]

In fairness to “The Mitchells vs. The Machine”, that song being there not and fitting the modern day at all is kind of the point. It’s a movie about being yourself no matter how others perceive you. So it’s just a dad and daughter being goofy by playing a song that she was probably obsessed with at some point because of the meme.

[@shinymainespoon]

I think it was also symbolizing their character growth. Being able to understand each other after years of being practically opposites

[@thewizofpants]

Numa Numa was a song that came out when I was growing up. My dad, brother and I would sing and dance to it together before Numa Numa guy went viral. I remember the plane animated video very fondly. To me, it's inclusion in the movie hit very close to home as this connection to some of the best moments of my childhood, while also finding common ground between generations. I assumed I was the only family that's had such fond family memories attached to the song, but given its importance in the movie I'd guess that it likely was a similarly important part of some of the writers' childhoods.

[@bradyweed4124]

@@thewizofpants it probably was! The family in the movie is modeled after one of the writer’s families. In fact, in the credits they are credited and it’s made clear that the movie was dedicated to them.

[@ethanronan-ulley1591]

They used to sing it together when Katie was younger in the film and later, the dad tries to get Katie sing and she denies him, it’s supposed to show that they have grow to acknowledge their love more and Katie is now able to give in to the embarrassing situation and just have fun with her dad.

[@skeletalmixer1019]

SOMEBODY needed something to cling to, huh?

[@dragonslibrary9207]

A big part of the reason memes in movies tend to fail is because meme trends pass much more quickly than it takes to make a movie. If you put a real meme in your script, it'll be painfully outdated by the time it hits the screen, but if you make one up then capturing that energy is so much harder.

[@mintyhippo8125]

I used to believe that. But there’s no way a movie that came out this year was actually made in 2010 lol

[@Canadian_Zac]

There are very few memes that are gonna last more than a month or two, and movies take like, 2 years to make fully There's like... 5 memes that have lasted long enough

[@ram3rz]

Movies don't take 10 years to make

[@brittommyv807]

Like Black Panther's "What are thoooose" segment. deeply painful

[@DorkN313]

@@brittommyv807 it was cringey, yes. but it also makes complete sense and was intended to be kinda cringey. the scene showed us how isolationism of Wakanda has led to them being behind everybody culturally. but the scene lacked some kind of alleviation of that cringe like a person that is up-to-date with culture that reacts to it by being ashamed or something. Black Panther overall is just one big good setup and cringe bad execution

[@CartoDarko]

I'm glad to see people defending the Mitchells vs the Machines one, it fits with the movie so well and is meant to be a bit cringey, being a throwback for Katie and her dad to bond, even if he's a little bit behind :)

[@LiamLimeLarm]

yeah, and its not even the meme, its just the song lmao

[@marcelberry784]

@@LiamLimeLarm its not even the original song, but some kind of bootleg

[@LSqre]

@@LiamLimeLarm I thought that the song was a bit of a meme recently by recently I mean a year or two ago

[@gregcharles3240]

Yeah it's Katie-Vision, it's edited like something Katie Mitchell would make and have fun with it.

[@Foxy02016]

Yeah, outdated memes are ok when it’s in character, I will defend moments like that, and it is the hill I’ll die on

[@briganos1915]

The f*cking song in Mitchels vs Machines is supposed to be cringe! Earlier in the story we saw that the main character was emberased by the song during the scene in the car. But now she's imbracing her familiy no matter who they are, she dosen't sing it for her enjoyment but to lift the spirit of her father.

[@ErieRosewood]

also I will forever die on the hill that dragosta din tei and its English version is a banger of a europop track and deserved better from america.

[@vfanon]

​@@ErieRosewoodthe original version of Carameldansen is also a bop (I mean... The edit is just speeding it up basically iirc lol so ofc the originals also good) A few good meme songs that are actually just killer 2000s eurobeat

[@pedrokz8.0]

THANK YOU

[@gregbarnes4083]

"Streamers dont just sit there and muse about the latest happenings in meme culture" - TomSka in an hour long discussion about meme culture in pop media All jokes aside a twitch stream with you and chat just roasting memes and stuff on the internet would be awesome, love your content man!

[@wickedmonroe]

sumitomedia entered the chat

[@MADKapo]

I was going to comment that. A lot of streamers answer to their twitch/youtube chat. That jacksepticeye clip seemed like someone had asked him what he thought of this "Free Guy" and that's why he was giving his opinion, seems pretty realistic to me lol

[@ewanb1086]

Moist critical kinda

[@LilDeuceDeuce]

As much as I enjoy judging people for awkwardly forcing memes into their content, I did put a trollface in the first asdfmovie song video. Maybe we shouldn't go so hard on them. I'm sure they meant well

[@zacklee4851]

Oh hey! It you!

[@MisterSandmanAU]

To be fair, trollface was still unironically used a decade ago.

[@gl1tchspectre_]

@@MisterSandmanAU No shot that was a decade ago. _THAT WAS A DECADE AGO?!_

[@jimmyredd]

The "What are those!?" in Black Panther caused me actual physical pain in the theatre

[@henryhere]

​​@@resyntax even vicious mockery doesn't do that much 💀

[@Whiteythereaper]

Honestly that was one that I found pretty funny. It fit with the character and makes sense for them to be a couple of years behind on memes

[@TheB0sss]

I cringed hard there lol, by that point that meme was already years old

[@gl1tchspectre_]

@@henryhere Y'know what fuck it, each terrible outdated meme in mainstream media like that is just Power Word Kill.

[@petterlarsson7257]

yeah

[@lrgogo1517]

What unnerves me the most about Diaper Hands is that they didn't just use the wrong meme format, but put a lot of elbow grease into incorrectly formatting that wrong format. Look at 23:20! It's based on the Impact macros, but instead of a still .png, somebody made an edit of the _video footage,_ with the text flying into place - they even masked the top text to go behind Greg's head!! _Nobody was putting this much effort into the kind of meme this was based on._

[@MrNicosaure]

I feel a lot of these jokes from the "French" side of Netflix are going to go over a lot of people's head so: -Snails from Turbo! with "Nourriture rapide!" written on it: Literally translates to "Fast food!" (I really liked that one) -La grande française baguette-off: Spoof of the great British bake-off -Enfant nommé doigt: translates to Kid named Finger -L'étrange le things: Strangers Things spoof but I'm guessing "l'étrange machin" would have not worked well with this channel's usual demographic -La fabrication de Tom: translates to "The making of Tom", except fabrication in French is only used when building something so this would be his conception rather than the supposed show's making-of* (which is way funnier) -Episode 1 of "Tom" is named "Beautiful horse" Interesting video honestly but we need to add professional memeologist to your Wikipedia page now, is there a doctorate for internet culture? I think there should be one, it would be an oddly specific branch of sociology but "Dr. Tomska, memeologist" would go great on a wall next to your gold record

[@broblerone413]

yeah i paused the video to look at all the jokes and they're really funny actually XD

[@gpdragonfire1652]

He has a PhD in Memetic Communication

[@nematrec1]

Fire ze Missiles! But I'm le tired

[@CarolynRae]

I wonder if Sammy had a part in this

[@Jakepearl13]

Dr ridgewell,expert in memetic science

[@dreameroftheblue]

I'd also say that the reason false memes are so easy to pinpoint is similar to anytime a group of people try to mimic a culture they're not *really* a part of, and how clear that fact is to those members lol (not just with things like younger culture vs older, but other demographics in general)

[@ethanstyant9704]

It's like when white western people people try Buddhism

[@wah8974]

Internet cultural appropriation

[@Mr_Original]

Makes sense.

[@harrytodhunter5078]

"Deregulate Tapioca" was genuinely funny

[@JACKHARRINGTON]

I don't enjoy many movies, but TMvTM was entertaining.

[@eileensnow6153]

I actually had to pause at that part to laugh, it was so unexpected and I felt like a real meme. Probably something you’d see on tumblr

[@animeloveer97]

Bro I know right because it's just unexpected and makes no sense

[@lvl99dh]

Legalize nuclear bombs

[@ThatGuyRNA]

Indeed, just deregulate it already

[@aoifedaly8960]

I actually think top text bottom text formats might be used in legacy media because they're really easy to read on a big screen too. The twitter shitposts are more accurate to what memes look like now, but with top text bottom text the writing is so big that you can have them take up a relatively small part of the screen and still be easily understandable

[@hehasaspaceship4229]

It's really interesting how many times Tom identifies a poor meme segment in a show and then follows it up with some variation of "I don't quite know how to explain...", and that's not a dig at Tom, the man knows exactly what he's taking about and is like the most qualified person I can think of to do a video like this, for me it feels like humans were not built to comminucate like this and language hasn't quite caught up to the abstraction of aspects of internet culture?? Idk this is a really cool vid

[@Canadian_Zac]

There are so many unspoken rules of humans, that are just impossible to actually explain. Try and word how social conventations work. if you had to describe to an alien how to do casual conversations, what would you say?

[@medoli900]

@@Canadian_Zac Curl up and cry?

[@Erone]

You can actually describe it in certain terms, but like Tom said you're gonna have to use concepts from philosophy or art theory to describe it. Like you could say for example that a lot of memes play on absurdity, references, variations, relatability. Or that animal memes tend to play on anthropomorphism. You can even say that some memes are so abstract, crappily made and not meant to represent anything to be funny that they're dadaist in some sense. You could write a whole thesis on what makes a meme a meme, but people are gonna say that "it's not that deep". It ACTUALLY IS that deep, because it's a new form of communication that we created to interact with other people when the internet became mainstream.

[@hehasaspaceship4229]

@@Erone That's what's so cool about the topic I think, is that the core concepts of what the joke is are easier to explain but there's also this whole other dimension of authenticity to this form of comminucation that changes the value of the information being presented, it's dope

[@DeathnoteBB]

@@Erone No it’s not even new, memes have existed since humans could communicate.

[@JPunkt1]

I love how Tom just randomly created a meme that's better than everything snl could come up with

[@THEJPIndustry]

Wich one specifically?

[@eimazd]

@@THEJPIndustry Any of them, really.

[@maija_]

The "why's that kid hanging out a window" one made me laugh because it's like a modern day shitpost that's made to make fun of bad memes

[@sea-abyssal]

It sorta reminds me of the "memes from dreams" , where it absolutely makes little sense because your brain came up with it while unconscious.

[@TheGameBoyss]

​@@sea-abyssalthomas the plank engine my beloved

[@hanthonyc]

I used to reupload bottom text memes that were publicly cached years ago to those meme generator sites, specifically the ones that were either very out of context or (most usually) by someone who doesn't understand the format of memes.... They ALL read like that, and they're gold. I had to pause the video because I was laughing so hard at that frame jesus christ

[@thecreatorofpc7929]

I didn’t laugh immediately at “Why is that kid hanging out the window”. But something about it broke me as soon as i thought about it for more than a second. It was probably just cause it was so stupid it went back to being funny. It was also probably the voice that i heard when thinking about it, which got rid of the “is” in the sentence

[@dominickeijzer5844]

I think TMvTM was meant to be dated, because it kind of represents both of the main characters. They're trying to desperately to connect, with Katie wanting to connect with her peers, and the dad whose name I can't remember wants to connect with his daughter. Their weirdness ties them together, including their choice of memes, or heartfelt songs, as is shown to us through them bonding over it a long time ago.

[@shnoozezzz9752]

i really like the mitchells vs the machines use of myahee cause earlier in the movie kid katie in like 2003 who probably saw a video on the early internet sings along to it with her dad and it represents their bond when she was young and how by the end of the movie theyve rebuilt their bond (also as someone whos bassically katies age i would probably have a really dumb interenet song as a end of movie dance number)

[@Omega6T]

Exactly what I was thinking

[@mintyhippo8125]

Right, it makes sense because the only time she bonded with her dad was when she was a little kid … so it also just shows how long ago it was, and how much he doesn’t understand her now.

[@dylandreisbach1986]

Imagine if a movie or show just hired tons of prominent meme creators and give them a clip and tell them to go wild with edits.

[@nickolias7292]

it's really hard if promoted TikToks with popular creators are anything to go off of

[@tooth2887]

I would watch that show/movie to HELL.

[@droidplant4961]

To me that would kind of conflict with the creativity in some way, idk

[@Yeahimagamer]

Just would create a YTP of the original show or movie

[@predacon457]

Kraccbacc

[@glitchyguru6468]

The Amazing World of Gumball used memes a lot for their jokes to good effect. I think the key is keeping the jokes quick and snappy so they don't come off as forced

[@mayojamsandwich2939]

I actually did an interview with the director for Mitchells vs. The Machines and I think the outdated memes were just a side effect of him basing the movie off of his family dynamic. He's genuinely a lovely guy if a bit out of touch lol

[@Anewevisual]

Okay

[@joshhumphrey736]

I mean when making a movie all memes will be out of date because it takes a long time to make a movie

[@mayojamsandwich2939]

@joshhumphrey736 these ones were like 10 years out of date so not really applicable

[@joshhumphrey736]

@@mayojamsandwich2939 oh ok, i'm not really a meme expert

[@DinxDog]

@@joshhumphrey736 I AM THE MEME EXPERT.

[@frecklesandfries9209]

This is giving “Markiplier going OFF on the minor inconveniences of Sour Patch Kids” vibes

[@tatoted8425]

I really like when memes are merely fun details in backgrounds that animators have a little fun with. like that one scene with smudge the cat in invincible or the loss meme in inside job. The less attention you draw to a meme the lesser the chance of it backfiring is.

[@DeathnoteBB]

The WHAT in Inside Job!!

[@Mr_Original]

@@DeathnoteBB Haven't even seen the movie and I had the same reaction.

[@DeathnoteBB]

@@Mr_Original It’s a show

[@CartoDarko]

I NEVER EVEN SAW THE INSIDE JOB ONE THAT'S AMAZING

[@LesbeansSplatoon]

I like ending on Mitchells VS The Machines cuz it’s specified earlier that this was the song they sung together back when it would’ve been more relevant and back when they felt connected. So them coming together to sing a song that to them means family is kinda sweet

[@ShanghaiPioneers]

Numa numa works in Mitchell vs the Machines because it was a father daughter moment from when she was young. It is meant to be cringe. The my Dad and I jammed to this meme back when I was 6 type of thing. It was shown in the intro of the movie too in a flashback.

[@9sven6]

I do have to say that in the Mitchels vs The Machine, I though Numa Numa really fit because it was in universe a family memory from years ago that first the father tries to push, before in the climax it comes back showing their reconciliation.

[@thegoatcarnival]

Also you can see Katie kinda cringing at the dad’s initial attempt to connect with her because the meme is dated, and even at the end she kinda hesitated while singing before she really got into it.

[@Engiflux]

Yeah Tom kinda missed the point of the numa numa. It was a meme reference but also for the updated song which was released in 2019 and sampled numa numa. The song is Live Your Life ft. Rihanna by T.I

[@BloonMan137]

That movie slapped

[@eliguy2344]

Exactly my thoughts as well. You can tell from the art when it pops up that it was something Katie and Rick did at a talent show when she was really young. The fact that it's kinda cringe works since her tech illiterate dad wouldnt be following memes at all and would likely still think it's a popular song. Which is why it works so well to show them reconciling.

[@CartoDarko]

yeah definitely!! that movie is awesome

[@Authorsuzannemeadows]

Is Tomska our first meme curator? Forget fine art, this is the true work that preserves our culture.

[@OllAxe]

In conclusion, movie production teams should hire Tom as a meme consultant.

[@erin2597]

i knew my humor was broken because “deregulate tapioca” made me laugh seriously

[@Ajc-ni3xn]

30:40 to be fair 4chan compiling murders in some shitty attempt to be cool and edgy is spot on. Also I don’t think they’d allow racial slurs in the movie so makes sense

[@animeloveer97]

I've seen some genuinely fucked shit on 4 chan back in the day I have to agree

[@carcinoGetenicist]

as someone who occasionally lurks 4chan i'll have to disagree. most would just call him a loser virgin incel and move on. the most accurate part was someone saying "bump"

[@oskarpiskorek9945]

​@@carcinoGetenicistyeah but there are people like this on 4chan who arent really afraid to post more fucked up shit than usual

[@adistantonion2202]

​@@carcinoGetenicistI didn't expect to see Karkats PesterChum handle with a Dave pfp...

[@BeesechurgerProductions]

I feel like its effectively impossible to represent /b/ at its "peak"(in quotes because I don't know a better word for what I mean) without the movie being heavily rated for graphic imagery and language, which is why a movie like Spree fails in that goal. Any movie based on the cultural zeitgeist's perception of what 4chan 'humor' is/was is going to be inherently unmarketable without sacrificing its entire premise for the sake of a rating and content theaters and distributors will accept.

[@dylandreisbach1986]

One theory is that old memes were more wholesome without swears. I mean imagine trying to explain to a business executive what is funny about putting a toy pony figure into a jar. Memes have just got more unhinged and that’s why we love them and that’s why the boring and money focused executives don’t like it.

[@aiocafea]

my thinking is at the beginning the only people that put memes into Big Media i.e. the sort that's also an investment had to be *really* convinced of internet culture's impact the young people that understood it basically that wasn't a good representation of how old most people in big US media are afterwards, the whole movie industry knew the somthing that was a 'meme' and without understanding *why* it works, they started to include it, but most of the reference materials the older people used were, logically, depiction of memes in other films it became what a meme is in their language, in their bubble and if you deviate from it, you have to once again really trust yourself or be in a position of power to put it into a film

[@ozandenizgunu]

Old memes include stuff like Goatse too.

[@Iamnottheplatypus]

" toy pony figure into a jar" 😟

[@Muhluri]

​@@Iamnottheplatypusdon't you love what happens when you put the jar on top of a radiator?

[@omegadragons321]

what is funny about pony in jar

[@-_Jupiter]

I think the main reason for “the media” not getting memes is because of how fast they come and go. One meme could only last 3 weeks but some memes can last years. The internet is a changing landscape and these media companies aren’t seeing that some things change.

[@portc.642]

I think a good reason why these movies and TV shows fail to accurately portray memes is also that they fail to understand WHY a meme goes viral. In like 90% of the examples Tom picked, the authors seem to think that memes are made specifically to make someone look ridiculous. The whole "in this episode the internet is mean against this character" becomes a bland a superficial approach because viral memes, be it top text/bottom text or a remix, almost always make fun of situations - not just the people themselves.

[@Canadian_Zac]

Which i think definitely shows what the people making the movies/shows feel They dont recognise Memes as dumb jokes we share just cuz They see them like things specifically targeted against someone and everyone being mean

[@lammellealoof7110]

The meme representation in the sonic movie was quite good. The sanic police sketch was integrated well, and whilst the sonic dialogue was cringy at times, it didn’t seem like the result of a ton of old directors trying to relate with the kids. The movie itself was the meme, rather than trying to shoehorn in old meme content.

[@genericname2747]

The Sanic was a joke that is funny even if you don't know the meme because it's funny drawing

[@shame2189]

The reason the sanic joke was so well done is because they integrated it well into the story. Without the meme existing, we would still have a funny joke.

[@mr.bisness7617]

its not really meme representation tho? Its morso a reference to said meme.

[@scorpiolight]

one of my favorite things about the meme references in that movie is that it's almost all sonic making them, who is, y'know, 13. of COURSE he'd be fortnite dancing and talking like a streamer, he's a kid!

[@xXSoupbubbleXx]

Same with the new Rescue Rangers movie.

[@tnc7399]

I think Mitchell's vs the machines makes sense about their outdated memes because that is the memes the family enjoys. And it shows that they know the memes are over 10 years old considering they show some when she is like 3. And the writers knew what they were doin

[@OBSDCC7]

Fun fact: Those really embarrassing anti-smoking ads caused me to pick up smoking.

[@asimpletaco4665]

The “It snot funny” joke had me genuinely laugh louder than i should’ve

[@lewislockwood9402]

I think the core problem is that, as memes evolved they became so layered. Like the funniest shit I saw this year was a combination of a phizer/ moderna meme, shinji from NGE, the morpheus red pill blue pill thing, and I think Joe Rogan but such a small proportion of the population is gonna be able to see a meme like that (for only a few seconds in a TV show) and be able to tell what the fuck it is (let alone what it conveys) so as memes become more and more self-referential and form-defying it becomes harder and harder to a) convey information with them (which is important in a TV show usually) and b) understand what they mean without knowing every constituent part of the image (which again isn't gonna be possible for a large tv audience)

[@stealthlock6634]

That meme you’re describing sounds conceptually amazing, can you share a link please

[@brunomacias460]

What was the image 😭😭😭😭😭

[@Ninjat126]

Yeah, a specific FORMAT might "go viral" but often because that format is useful for passing on some OTHER joke or information. Someone's going to redraw the "drake reacts" meme to be an anime character, then someone's going to edit a different anime character's face over the top of the first one, etc. etc. The punchline is going to be something like "reach Shardspace through naptime" which is an entirely legitimate joke to a small sphere of people but completely incomprehensible to everyone else in the world. Depending on your social circles you can get stupidly specific & self-referential, e.g. a screenshot of a tweet of a picture of Charles III captioned with a crab emoji, that someone's added an ifunny watermark to.

[@kaideane6973]

Theres a youtube series called 'The Lucids'. In it one of the main characters tries to teach the other characters how to save their friend by making a bunch of educational memes. The memes she made are genuinely funny (especially when you consider the fact she's an out of touch teacher) I think this is one of the best ways to add memes to a show or movie. Having the meme not be viral, and actually further the character development and comedy of the scene. It not only gives it purpose, but makes it far more enjoyable (and memorable) to watch.

[@j-train13]

19:58 "Something that people just put on shots of disasters" _shows painting of America signing the Declaration of Independence_

[@lichkinggamer5708]

Remember he’s English

[@nickjones9867]

Fairly sure Tom is pitching himself as a meme consultant to Hollywood.

[@theotakux5959]

Well, if the ASA keeps giving him shit, he may need a job to fall back on.

[@emillambrigger]

"Nobody sits down and discusses memes" Proceeds to talk about memes for almost an hour straight. (Granted they're poorly fabricated imitations of memes but you get what I mean)

[@SerathDarklands]

_"They be stealin' my bucket!"_ "Who is that FOR?" Me. It's for me, Tom. I always get a chuckle out of that, so much so that I made a bucket-collecting character in Skyrim years back. Every bucket I could find was immediately picked up. Because it's mah buckit.

[@kiwisark8055]

Your name being David is so unexplainabley perfect for this

[@RatedMforMeenie]

buh-ket

[@FinnDanger-e3v]

Are you related to Jeff Meyer perhaps

[@SerathDarklands]

@@FinnDanger-e3v I am not aware of anyone in my extended family with the name Jeff.

[@FinnDanger-e3v]

@@SerathDarklands Dead Rising reference

[@Strawberrygremlins]

a great example of good internet representation in media is the amazing world of gumball. That show has some crazy on point moments and the writing is appropriate, the writers have a good idea of what they are doing.

[@youdontknowwho505]

I mean, gumball was a bit edgier than we give them credit for. Something about a joke where they thereaten to send some guy to Uzbekistan or something, but the punchline is that he would be the wife. Like, I feel like that’s a joke that would get some flak if it was put on SNL or something.

[@bonezagaga0004]

as someone who is OBSESSED with michelles vs the machines, it gets the memes right when they happen. and when they started singing numa numa it didnt feel like they were just redoing an old meme, it felt more like they were just using an old song that Was memed at some point. no joke to it, just katie jammin with her old man. feels good

[@shinymainespoon]

I had a similar thought. That scene was far less about the meme itself and more about the emotion attached to it. How the dad finally connected with the daughter. Two vastly different people finding common ground. Truly an amazing movie

[@isavenewspapers8890]

Oh yeah, that movie! A truly insanity-inducing experience, if I do say so. Highly recommend for… y’know, the other people reading this comment.

[@chloejessica7961]

even the bit that's featured in the video looked pretty good to me, i didn't hate it at all.

[@danieltaber4924]

Correction- Powerthirst was not inspired by Idiocracy. Idiocracy hired the guys who did Power thirst to make the Brawno ads because it was already viral

[@Monkchelle_Kongbama]

Mmm thats too hot.

[@CommissarMitch]

I think there is a VERY thin line between "Oh this is harmless and kinda cute." And "Ew. Cringe. Why would they do that? Someone stab my eyes out!"

[@blockstacker5614]

IMO sometimes a meme is so cringe it loops back around to being funny again.

[@MangoDragn]

@@blockstacker5614 like amogus

[@Kuros_limbo]

@@blockstacker5614 that's what I call the Morbius syndrome

[@ironmaster6496]

@@blockstacker5614 ooh like Emo Peter street dance in Spiderman 3

[@limediamond4595]

@@blockstacker5614 r/comedyheaven

[@aModernDandy]

It's fascinating that a lot of memes are taken from mainstream entertainment (e.g. how do you do fellow kids) but the reverse rarely works.

[@realname4625]

The fact that you held my ADHD attention throughout this hour long video really speaks to your ability to meme better than movies

[@steinmaniac7920]

THIS VIDEO IS AN HOUR LONG?!? OH WHAT THE FUCK At 50 minutes I read your comment and my ADHD brain fuckin' explodes, holy shit.

[@octanemain3010]

Man go: "meme" ADHD brain go: "true"

[@ryanhernandez8324]

I feel bad for you guys tbh

[@JameyMcQueen]

@@ryanhernandez8324 Feeling bad for people who are different is kinda fucked up.

[@rockstar_ves]

its an hour long??? tom is truly the cure to our adhd/j

[@minoxs]

not gonna lie, I literally laughed out loud at the "I bet he must be thinking about other women" ... "Is ice cream pizza a meal?" that's just so... perfect

[@minoxs]

@Guy-Manuel indeed it is

[@minoxs]

@Guy-Manuel thanks dad

[@WeirdWimp]

@@minoxs who are you talking too?

[@minoxs]

@WeirdWimp if you mean the 1 year old reply under the original comment then uhh, to someone who clearly deleted their account since then?? (as can be seen by the unlinked @) weird ass comment bro

[@minoxs]

@ woah I can't tag you

[@0-M72-0]

The line "you can just hire them! I would know, I did it, and now I've got a gold record!" almost made me cry.

[@LaMortDeLaMusique]

I'm surprised Tom didn't mention Cassetteboy as another popular musical memer. Perhaps it's because Cassetteboy doesn't autotune, he just re-arranges speeches to say entirely new sentences.

[@0-M72-0]

@@LaMortDeLaMusique WHY ARE YOU TELLING THIS TO ME?!?!?!?!?!?!?

[@hanthonyc]

"They just edited her face to be fucked up, that's not really a thing" 18:38 Bro has not met a Jerma985 fan

[@CallofFreaky]

Those aren’t edited, Jerma just looks like that sometimes

[@s0LLagal]

Yeah, no, Jerma's just Like That™

[@shaunmurray6170]

Sitting through a video essay about memes feels like a bit of a meme.

[@ConnorDrawss]

Just gotta speed this up and put it as a reaction in a ______ slander meme vid, It'd work

[@Mikescool444]

@@ConnorDrawss surfshark - French arg speedrun any%

[@SerivusPrime]

I feel like the biggest difference, and the what the companies are missing is the relationship one shares with other when sharing cringy memes. When my friend hops into the chat and calls us all gamerz and does something lolrandom, whether intentionally cringy or not, it gains a positive response between he's my friend and we have good blood. When a 2 billion dollar company does this to sell me something, it comes off as desperate. There's a "comfort" that's shared among individuals that allows dat boi memes to still hold some humor even though its been long dead that advertisements don't and can't have.

[@TheLeakySausage]

"Why does this matter? It fucking doesn't. BUT IT DOES." Tom's a true connoisseur of memes, and I appreciate that.

[@ace-smith]

Just want to point out that the Don't Look Up example is another one of those "doing their own version of a preexisting meme" instances. A twitch streamer had a very similar rant, and it was turned into a 30 Seconds To Mars COD headshot compilation.

[@taknie4303]

I love how gamers went from calling eachother noobs to just using slurs

[@HorsesArePeople2]

Gamers have always used slurs. Have you ever seen a COD lobby from 2009?

[@killerkid2028]

@@HorsesArePeople2 thank you was just about to type this

[@SumeaBizarro]

This is just the Childhood adulthood difference you experienced.

[@Krondon-SSR]

Wtf did you just say you #*&%?!*

[@goatpepperherbaltea7895]

This a ignorant ass comment 😂wtf

[@lyl14ghost]

Ok ok the "get sucked" cyberpunk meme came out of nowhere and this man gets it man. I laughed so hard.

[@s0LLagal]

That genre of meme always gets a laugh out of me and I'm a bit ashamed of it

[@TheTonodu75]

As a Frenchman I can confirm this "Tom" show is great. It's everything we talk about! (altough "Enfant nommé Doigt" is an absolute classic as well) Also idk if it was done on purpose for comedic effect but the french for director isn't directeur, it's réalisateur.

[@mistuh69420]

est-ce que l’endant nommé doigt locomote comme ça ou comme ça?

[@TheTonodu75]

@@mistuh69420 comme ça

[@darenlee8987]

hello my fellow frenchman, we are both french who watch tomska, would you (by any chance) marry me ?

[@joe6640]

I get that Numa Numa might feel out of place in Mitchells vs. the Machines (a 2021 movie) but it makes sense in context as it’s a callback to the main character singing the song with her dad as a kid. Seeing as how Katie’s about 18 or so, that tracks. Playing it as triumphantly as they do is still weird however 😅

[@Emerald-Fluffie]

I must say the “stop posting about among us” guy is basically the real life version of how cartoons portray a viral meme with how it gets remixed

[@e.d.5766]

In defense of the use of the goat scream in Thor Love and Thunder, Thor owns two magical goats within Norse mythology, so them being in the film is definitely at least slightly more than just "Funny meme, go in movie". You could still have them in the film without them screaming, that's not the only noise goats make, but it makes sense without it needing to be referencing a meme.

[@thanatos454]

20:57 Idiocracy came out in 2006. Tim and Eric Show started in 2007. The Eric Andre Show started in 2012.

[@Randomlad.0737]

He isn't a meme expert.

[@thanatos454]

@@Randomlad.0737 Odd for him to say those things then.

[@SpaceShip-Orion]

yeah I thought that was weird too.

[@OintmentNailhead]

"Why is that kid hanging out the window" actually made me laugh just out of how stupid it is

[@pokeguy742]

I wish I had more patreon money to give Tom so we could get more stuff like this long-form content.

[@kaleidoskye]

The "Eats Spicy Goodness, Like a Boss!" meme still makes me want to jump into a river

[@kamptey]

2:12 wait wtf tom totally predicted that one episode of black mirror

[@eldritchexploited5462]

I will accept this sort of memery once I see a fully rendered 3d among us ass on prime time television

[@Mikescool444]

Shitty sfm recreation of Freddy fazbear quoting a character.

[@Piper331]

"I swear if Freddy fazbear trys to sell me insurance again im gonna scream"​@@Mikescool444

[@mvwinf]

genuinely, mad respect for interviewing the Gregory Brothers and still saying less-than-favorable things about some of their work. really shows the integrity and thoroughness of your work

[@lordbroccoli4182]

I’m ashamed of myself for laughing as hard as I did at “Deregulate Tapioca”. Very, very ashamed Edit: Wow, this comment blew up, did you know that in terms of male human and female Pokémon breeding…

[@christianmccauley7340]

Don’t be, it’s funny. Never apologize

[@benfletcher8100]

It was more like a modern meme than an actual modern meme

[@CFootprints]

Don't be, that was so out of left field it had me floored.

[@OtakuUnitedStudio]

Admittedly it was so absurd it was hard not to laugh

[@Rain_MG]

I lost my shit at that, heresy

[@Mythikal13]

1:54 is no one gonna talk about how this ad literally became a black mirror episode

[@officiallyjan8596]

How did you make an hour long video about bad memeing in movies and tv shows without once mentioning the utterly insane cringe-fest that was the "WHAT ARE THOOOOSE?" joke in Black Panther? The meme was dead before the movie even started production and it still made it in to release!

[@thegoatcarnival]

We should also discuss Disney’s Hercules doing it in 1997, 18 years before the meme came into existence. Unsure what I’m talking about? Well there’s a scene where Hades is ranting about Hercules, and stops himself once he sees one of his henchmen wearing his merchandise, which just so happens to be a pair of ‘Air-Herc’s, and asks “What are those?”

[@Sophie_Cleverly]

Someone shouted that at me in the street once many years ago and pointed at my shoes. I was just wearing normal trainers and I'm confused about it to this day 😆

[@ryanc473]

I don't actually even remember that meme at all lol. Just looked it up to confirm, and yep, no freaking idea, I missed it completely. Though 2015 was an interesting year for me... but still Edit: apparently most 2015 memes are pretty lost on me. Wtf was I doing that year lol? I recognize the 2014 stuff, and obviously 2016 was primarily just harambe stuff, but 2015 is a complete blank for me

[@thegoatcarnival]

@@ryanc473 Mate went into a meme coma in 2015.

[@ethanstyant9704]

I reckon it was done pretty well. The segue was done in a funny way and it doesn't seem *that* forced from what we see of Shuri

[@jakewantwin780]

I will always love these random deep dives into subjects that I never even thought about before.

[@mintyhippo8125]

You are so lucky to have never thought about this lol Like Tom, this tortures me lol

[@bonkers5451]

1:18 Thanks for the shoutout TomSka! Really appreciate it!

[@TripleXMango]

26:59 I would say there is still some use of the word noob in mainstream gaming, but it has sort of gone the way that “nerd” has, where the intention of the word has changed. It isn’t really a derogatory anymore, and instead is just a shorthand for low level players.

[@flemtone]

The only thing that pisses me off more than badly done memes is badly done computer scenes e.g. NCIS 2 people using the same keyboard to stop a hacker.

[@literaryloser4470]

"A gigabyte of RAM should do that trick"

[@Whiteythereaper]

"He's pinged our IP address, I have to reroute our firewall to stop him accessing our mainframe"

[@caseybaker7935]

I have the same problem with video game scenes, where it's blatantly obvious that not only is nobody actually playing a game, but nobody involved in the scene has ever played the game being shown even once. Saw some people playing Halo 4 as if it had drop-in drop-out co-op and doing nothing but mashing the A button and not touching the triggers at all

[@SomeYouTubeTraveler]

@@caseybaker7935 Accompanied of course by Atari beeps and boops, or random machine guns and explosions while the characters are obviously not in combat. "Generic FPS splitscreen for 5 seconds of screen time" is probably the simplest thing to hire some programmer to toss together on Unity in 2 days and throw stock video game sounds over, requiring zero royalty fees.

[@imadoggirl]

omg I remember that scene. Hysterical.

[@DanOWar55]

THANK YOU! This is a massive pet peeve of mine. Hits? HITS!? I hate when someone says "dude someone made a remix of you" and it just the most dogshit nothing remix you've ever heard. Just don't put memes in your shows and movies guys. They WILL be outdated and just at the right age to be unfunny and cringe when your movie or show releases

[@TechnoColoredMuffins]

GOD SAME every time i here social engagement as "hits" in media i immediately look up when it came out; if its pre 2009, i can let it slide but afterward it boggles the mind when i hear it in the wild

[@stealthlock6634]

To be clear: absolutely every concept Tom put forth, especially the ones where he said “I don’t have the words to explain it,” I understood his explanations perfectly

[@JerryFlowersIII]

I imagine the medias understanding of memes paused in 2008 because after that the internet became so big that even viral stuff was a niche whereas before if you were on the internet you knew about each one.

[@DigitalBe4r]

As a french bear I found the french Netflix representation in the sponsor pretty accurate. We love LE TOM above everything else, even baguettes and being dirty.

[@zambieslayer811]

This was a weirdly comprehensive history of memes and meme culture as it has evolved. I might recommend this to my parents

[@joshcook983]

I love how Tom talking about how the Gregory brothers being still relevant today perfectly lined up with the corn song

[@wuddle918]

I know this video is two years old but I'm surprised it didn't go over The Amazing World of Gumball's portrayal of websites like KZbin, something it does so frequently that there are entire episodes solely dedicated to showing off the show's equivalent of KZbin. An analysis of those portrayals would have been interesting, I think.

[@EinDose]

I feel like the songify/autotuning meme sticks so well in media in part because it's exactly the right amount of effort they're comfortable with making. With a lot of the image ones, as mentioned, you can see them overdoing it probably because they don't get that it's funny BECAUSE it's low-effort, and maybe the production environment is such that they can't actually produce PROPERLY low-effort-looking stuff. But with songifying, the joke IS the effort. That the song version of this one local news interview is genuinely a decent song, that the editing of the video is so solid; it feels like it's actually worth having a TV show's crew and budget produce something like this. And it allows for moments of actually recognizable 'put in effort to look low-effort', like the Cleveland Show actually ANIMATING the effect of bad green-screen.