The Meme Tourist Trap

Author's Note: This was a collaborative project between another user and me fairly early in my run; up until this point, most of my blogs had some narrative point to make, but this one was done just for fun and was an experiment in having illustrations done just for a story. 

Phoebe: What are memes? I have been asking myself that question for the better part of a year, and I am still not quite sure. Random TV gags, political propaganda, and even cryptic in-jokes all seem to be memes, and they all come from 4chan. What even is a 4chan, though? I think I visited a 4chan once, but it just appeared to be an old imageboard. It cannot be the backbone of internet culture. 

Phoebe: After a lot of research, I think I found 4chan. It is in 655 Ful01001001 00100000 01100001 01101101 00100000 01100001 00100000 01110110 01101001 01110010 01110101 01110011 Connecticut. I have no time to waste!

Phoebe: Hmm, I thought 4chan would have an urban feel to it. This feels like someone Mashed an anime convention into a Midwestern rural town.

Leroy: It's great.

Phoebe: What, Hey, Uh Hello! 

Leroy: You look like a Normie in need of a tour! 

Phoebe: Are you a tour guide?

Leroy: Sure, why not?

Phoebe: Uh, oka-

Leroy: 50 bucks for the deluxe tour. 

Phoebe: I only have twenty bucks in physical cash. 

Leroy: We're having a sale; a deluxe tour costs 20 bucks this time only!

Phoebe: Really, I got here at just the right time!

Leroy: Ya see, making memes is an industry, day in and day out, 4channers come up with innovative ways to say detailed things without using a wall of text. 

Phoebe: Any particular reas-

Leroy: Take a look at these memes here!

Phoebe: I am not familiar with these memes. 

Leroy: You wouldn't be. They're memes that don't make it to the mainstream. A lot of them aren't very good. Some memes require a bit of time in the oven before the normies can ruin them. 

Phoebe: Is there a reason why this one room has a bunch of gravestones in it? 

Leroy: It's the memorial dedicated to good memes killed by bad people. We got the gravestone for memes killed by Reddit, Tumblr, and Behind the Meme. Take a gander at that curtain. 

Phoebe: This one? 

Leroy: Behind it is the face of the greatest meme creator ever known. Can you guess who it is? 

Phoebe: Stephen Hillenburg?

Leroy: It's no one. 

Phoebe: Oh, I see. 

Leroy: You can't have glory hounds on an anonymous message board. That was a good guess, though. 

Leroy: You ever had Meme Cuisine. 

Phoebe: That's a thing?

Leroy: Yeah, Nuggets, spaghetti, Soy, Milk, Almonds, and The Special. Anything on the menu interests you?

Phoebe: I don't eat fo- 

Leroy: You're paying.

Phoebe: I don't have any more physical money. 

Leroy: You can use digital currency. 

Phoebe: Yo- This place accepts Dogecoin?

Leroy: Not anymore; it would take a thousand Dogecoin to pay for a pint of salty tears! Use your government-approved plastic fun money with the built-in spyware chips!

Phoebe: Affirmative.

Leroy: Tours over! Time for you to go home, but before you go, let me take a picture of you, stand next to the bust of Admiral Ackbar.  

Phoebe: Okay! 

Leroy: Say, "It's a trap!" 

Phoebe: It's a tr-*hole opens up under Phoebe, and she falls down the hole* aaaaaaaappppp!

Leroy: Remember to give us five stars on Yelp!