What Is The Fitness Gram Pacer Test? How Vine Tackled A Gen Z Core Memory

Fade in: a sparkling gymnasium, with wood floors and a herd of 14 year olds milling about, lined up together on a painted line. The gym teacher plugs in a speaker, and a gruff, authoritative and perhaps vaguely Southern-accented voice booms across the room. It's the most-dreaded day of Middle School, the FitnessGram™ Pacer Test

The FitnessGram™ Pacer Test is a core memory for Millennials and Generation Z, and so it's naturally become a subject of memes. Most people under the age of 30 can probably recite from memory what the voice told them and recall the strangely schmaltzy elevator music to which dozens of children once did cardio.

What Is The Fitness Gram Pacer Test?

The FitnessGram™ Pacer Test is a multistage aerobic capacity test that progressively gets more difficult as it continues. The 20 meter pacer test will begin in 30 seconds. Line up at the start. The running speed starts slowly, but gets faster each minute after you hear this signal. [beep] A single lap should be completed each time you hear this sound. [ding] Remember to run in a straight line, and run as long as possible. The second time you fail to complete a lap before the sound, your test is over. The test will begin on the word start. On your mark, get ready, start.

Where Do Memes About The Fitness Gram Pacer Test Come From?

Memes about the FitnessGram™ Pacer test first spread on the video-sharing platform Vine in early 2016, the last year of the famed app's life. Often, these memes featured individuals lip-synching the words to the FitnessGram™ Pacer test audio recording.

But commentary and discourse about the test has often surfaced on social media, as it is a core memory for many Americans.

Why Do People Meme About The Fitness Gram Pacer Test?

One of the things that the internet has always been used for is nostalgia. People who share an experience in life also want to share it online. The FitnessGram™ Pacer audio, so immediately recognizable, was a good way to get engagement with an audience and make people laugh.

Memes, in many ways, can help to bring out your inner middle schooler in the most wholesome way possible. And the continued cultural memory of the FitnessGram™ Pacer test, memed across several platforms, shows exactly how it is that memes help us to remember who we were.

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For the full history of the FitnessGram™ Pacer Test, be sure to check out Know Your Meme's encyclopedia entry for more information.