Bernie Got Inked, 'The Queen's Gambit' And This Week's Other Best Memes, Ranked
Here at Digg, we try our best to cover the most important and confounding memes that come across the timeline. But the web is littered with tons of great memes that never quite hit the mainstream and instead just bounce around the weird corners of Twitter or Reddit.
Enter our recurring feature, Memes, Ranked. This week, we've got "The Queen's Gambit," one gotta go, package fail, Bernie got inked and stimulus checks.
5. 'The Queen's Gambit'
The meme
Netflix's wildly popular Cold War-era coming-of-age series "The Queen's Gambit," about protagonist Beth Harmon's quest to become the greatest chess player in the world, has clearly left an impression on viewers. The show is Netflix's most popular scripted limited series ever, even if most viewers have no idea what's happening on the chess board.
This week, cheeky netizens paid homage to the series by adding the caption "The Queen's Gambit" to random scenes from movies with characters playing chess or other board games.
Examples
James Crugnale
4. One Gotta Go
The meme
We are once again playing the elimination game on Twitter, where you post four images of like items and challenge people to delete one from existence. Some of these are more satisfying than others: the ones that ask you to banish a carb from existence are simply cruel, while we would all too readily forget "The Big Bang Theory" ever happened.
This week, we've got some tough choices to make in movies and TV.
Examples
For my part: "Finding Nemo" (boring! sorry!), "Suite Life" (I actually haven't seen this but have survived without it, so), "Mary Poppins" (didn't need it), "Snow White" (utterly terrifying), "Aristocats" (it's the racism for me).
Molly Bradley
3. Package Fail
The meme
Last week, TikTok user @ivetteexwx posted a video of a package rolling down an upward-moving conveyer belt, moving a lot but going nowhere. The caption read, "It's getting there I promise."
The video then made the leap to Twitter, where it struck a chord given the widespread shipping delays brought on by holiday shopping, the COVID-19 pandemic and winter weather. Pop music stans waiting for albums and merch they had ordered also picked up on the meme, as did at least a few people waiting on Congress to pass a COVID stimulus (less-literal) package.
Examples
Jon-Michael Poff
2. Bernie Got Inked
The meme
On Sunday, Bernie Sanders got the COVID-19 vaccine. As soon as the picture of him getting the shot hit the internet, Twitter users immediately projected their ink dreams onto the Vermont senator.
Examples
Adwait Patil
1. Stimulus Checks
The meme
On Monday night, Congress passed a $900 billion COVID relief bill that would give most Americans $600 stimulus checks during a time of incredible economic hardship. The $600 figure — half the amount of the $1,200 checks the government issued earlier this year — garnered swift criticism. President Trump himself called the number "ridiculously low" and insisted that the checks be raised to $2,000 per person.
While it's still too early to say whether or not Congress will be able to fulfill Trump's request — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has lent her support to the idea, but negotiations between Democrats and Republicans might prevent the $2,000 checks from coming to fruition — backlash to the $600 checks was immediate on the internet. Internet users called into question how $600 was supposed to be helpful to Americans in need, especially given the fact that many people have lost their livelihoods during the pandemic.
Examples
Pang-Chieh Ho
And if you're hungry for more memes, here's last week's "The Week's Best Memes, Ranked" article, where we rank I think (s)he did it but I just can't prove it, tell me without telling me, don't worry about what's in the coronavirus vaccine and more.
