Forums / Discussion / Meme Research

Relating to someone picking an obviously incorrect choice such as:

Left Exit 12 Off Ramp

Boardroom Suggestion

Are there enough of them to deserve a tag?

Yea I think this is worth keeping track of with a tag for sure. Added.

I was going to respond earlier but since the thread didn't receive any attention I and it was mostly a complicated "I don't think so" I didn't feel like I really needed to. But since Don responded I feel like I have to.

It gets to the same problems I said with some of the entries in the "things I don't like" style memes. While most are pretty clear cut examples `

Take for example the two you listed.

Left Exit 12 Off Ramp: The main thing is a choice between tow things. However, there aren't that many in the gallery so it's hard to know what the "standard" is between the choices. Some are clearly trying to be "this way good, this way bad"

Others have no real "objectively good/bad" choice, and just show intense personal preference

Boardroom Suggestion: This is not choosing the "wrong" choice. It is most frequently seen as rejecting the more popular choice. To quote the entry it is: "an exploitable comic series satirizing the perception gap between what consumers want and what corporate executives think they want, in similar vein of Corporate Logic and All Right, Gentlemen comics" Mare than just "wrong choice" it's discrediting the obvious/popular choice in favor of choices that are fairly inconsequential.

Of course the meme has far expanded beyond just corporate logic things. which either dramatically oversimplifies the formula to a "do the right thing vs do the wrong thing"

this is like the closest I found to the "objective good" answer being thrown out

…completely ignores the original intent to change it up…

…or changes it to be something else, in this case the focus being on someone having overeaction over something minor.

Daily Struggle is another one that on the surface give an appearance of matching, as the original is the choice between "being a dick and not being a dick". However, most examples are closer to having the same intent as is given in some counter-signal memes, highlighting seemingly contradictory mindsets that some people seem to have. Most of the time the decision being "good" or not is not important, it's just that they people being portrayed seem to hold both true/important despite them appealing to be incompatible.

Overall, I don't think this tag is needed or that useful. Memes today that last are generally more dynamic. While the "things I don't like" pretty much fallow the same format of being a soapbox for the editor to voice their opinions, most of those barely lasted a week, or had much more variation of their format beyond being a simple soapbox to the point that it's hard to argue that the primary use is consistent with the tag.

Granted, it being misused/ misapplied I also don't feel is going to cause any real harm, and while they are all still about making choices and generally going with/ going against one for comedic effect, that's a mouthful to try and put into a single tag.

What about then…"different options" tag?