Lonely Meme Halloween

01 Nov 2011

Lonely Meme Halloween

elly

This Halloween, I decided to be an Internet meme. More specifically, I chose to be Hipster Ariel. As was made apparent by my night of confused and/or disregarded looks, this was a bad idea.

For those who are not familiar…

According to KnowYourMeme, Hipster Ariel (a.k.a Hipster Mermaid) is an Advice Animal image macro series featuring a screenshot of Ariel from Disney’s 1989 animated film The Little Mermaid and a superimposed caption poking fun at hipsterisms.

Hipster Ariel

It was relatively fresh (became popular in February of this year according to Google Insights), had potential for being “Halloween-Appropriate Sexy” and still somewhat recognizable for those who are not familiar with the meme.

So, why did I choose the wrong Halloween costume? I roughly received a 5% acknowledgement rate from strangers of what my costume was supposed to be.

Here’s what a regular conversation on Halloween went:

“You look CUUUUUUTE. So, what are you?”

“Hipster Ar- er, uh, I’m Ariel, from The Little Mermaid.. got that, right? Well, as a Hipster. No? Ok, you know the Internet? Yeah, there’s this funny mem- I mean, funny picture on the Internet… oh, you haven’t seen it? Oh fuck, let’s talk about your costume for a second. I love Waldo.”

You can describe a movie, a song, a TV show plot with success… but an Internet meme? No. Memes are special because you can only truly experience them in the darkness of your man-cave, lit only by your computer screen, while your hands are in your pants for warmth, giggling as you scroll down your Tumblr feed.

In order to make myself feel better about my utter failure, I compiled a short list of other Internet memes and cultural icons to join my club of unrecognizable costumes.

Costume: Aladdin Sane

Aladdin Sane Costume