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What's The 'Paracetamol' Meme? The TikTok Trend And Original Joke About A Doctor's Bad Handwriting Explained
The Paracetamol meme is currently viral on TikTok, entrenched in a strange slideshow trend known as Nothinglikeyallcore. No, none of these words are in the Bible, but they're definitely major trends on TikTok right now.
The original "Paracetamol" meme is a WhatsApp screenshot that centers on the bad handwriting of a doctor or pharmacist. The scribble that's sent is allegedly supposed to say "Paracetamol" but, of course, it looks totally alien.
However, where did this meme come from and how has it turned into one of TikTok's most avant-garde trends? Let's explain.
What's The Original 'Paracetamol' Meme?
The original version of the "Paracetamol" meme was a tweet sent in 2019 by a since-deleted Twitter user named @redgermz. He shared a screenshot of a text conversation between him and his pharmacist brother who was able to translate a doctor's scribble that he'd allegedly found on Facebook.
The tweet was reposted across social media sites soon after its virality. This led to copycats who replicated the text message format on the messaging app WhatsApp. The WhatsApp iterations were shared on Facebook by southeast Asian pages like Tintu-Mon.
These images would later become the most widely recognized versions of the "Paracetamol" meme, specifically finding a home on TikTok in 2023.
What's The 'Paracetamol' Meme On TikTok?
This year, for some odd reason, the WhatsApp screenshots shown above have become highly shared memes on TikTok. Currently, the first known TikToker who seems to have started the entire trend is named @jaxsandy02 who posted a slideshow with a bunch of over-edited and recaptioned versions of the original meme.
In meme historian terms, the practice of over-editing and repurposing an image is called "exploiting" and formats that involve exploiting are called "exploitables."
So, the "Paracetamol" meme adds to a large database of exploitable meme trends that have come before it like "Two Guys On a Bus" or "Saddam Hussein's Hiding Place," just to name two. However, with "Paracetamol" there's a so-called "Hood Irony" twist when you take into consideration its place in "Nothinglikeyallcore."
What's 'Nothinglikeyallcore' On TikTok?
"Nothinglikeyallcore" refers to a trend on TikTok that involves taking one meme and over-editing it to the point of no recognition. The trend takes place in a long photo slideshow, where by the end of it, the last image is far removed from the original.
The "Paracetamol" meme is a great example of this but so is the original meme that the trend is named after: "I'm Nothing Like Y'all."
This image of a fish jumping out of a fish bowl is the original meme that was over-edited in the trend. TikTokers just slapped the "-core" suffix to the end of its combined words and created an aesthetic in the namesake of "Corecore."
Many memes are a part of Nothinglikeyallcore. Meme creators seemingly choose a base image at random and then combine all the precursor images into one amalgamation.
Overall, it's hard to describe this trend but, once you see a Nothinglikeyallcore slideshow, it just might click for you. You might become obsessed.
For the full history of Paracetamol, be sure to check out Know Your Meme's entry for even more information.
