Viral Tweet Strikes Hitherto Unknown Universal Feeling: The Humiliation Of Chasing A Ping Pong Ball

They say great art comes when an author hits on a hitherto undiscovered universal truth that fleshes out the human experience. Such was the stroke of brilliance that hit Twitter user @cassthevirgin last Saturday, when she tweeted, "chasing after a ping pong ball is wildly dehumanizing."

chasing after a ping pong ball is wildly dehumanizing

— cass (@cassthevirgin) November 22, 2020

Evidently, this struck a chord with literally a million Twitter users, racking up an astounding 1.3 million likes and turning "chasing a ping pong ball" into a meme on the platform for a week.

We've all been in this scenario: while playing the pongs beer or ping, the ball goes awry, setting off a slapdash quest to retrieve it before it inevitably rolls into the one unreachable corner of the room never before touched by human hands. The ball makes a mockery of man's mastery of the natural world, taunting you while "Yakety Sax" plays in your and all onlooker's heads. Junkee ran a long breakdown of the misery of chasing a ping pong ball after @cassthevirgin's tweet went viral, while Twitter users began firing off hot takes on ping pong balls.

How I think I look chasing after a ping pong ball 😔 pic.twitter.com/RTUIeI4ytN

— raterina 🐀 (@chimpyshrimp) November 22, 2020

crawling under a table to pick up a ping pong ball is a form of torture

— Pakulo Papito (@PakuloPapi) November 23, 2020

crawling under the table should be a form of capital punishment

— jay (@userjaymes) November 22, 2020

There’s no cool way to pick up a ping pong ball off the floor

— g (@grasap_rocky) November 22, 2020

I always did this when we had to play ping pong in hs gym. Frustrated the hell out of everybody waiting for me, but at least I didn't feel like I was frantically chasing after my last bit of self-respect.

— ⌛ (@timelocket) November 23, 2020

The tweet clearly resonated with a wild amount of people, reaching a "like" total that can usually only be attained by celebrities and politicians. So what gives? Twitter user @LeventalLab has an idea.

this is a funny observation because it takes a universal experience and points out something about it that you sorta noticed but never quite put into words

— Ilya Levental (@LeventalLab) November 23, 2020