Is the Cure to Male Loneliness Thugging That Shit Out?
Part of a series on Is the Cure to Male Loneliness Out on the Pickleball Court?. [View Related Entries]
About
Is the Cure to Male Loneliness Thugging That Shit Out? refers to an altered version of the Is the Cure to Male Loneliness Out on the Pickleball Court? meme (which originally exploited a New York Times opinion piece written my Michelle Cottle), replacing the latter half of the phrasal template with the slang phrase "thugging that shit out" and the image macro with actor Michael Cera staring at the meme's viewer. Originally posted to Instagram in late 2023, the variation gained its own memetic traction continuing into the year as others replaced the subject image.
Origin
On August 25th, 2023, Instagram[1] user @toucherofcancer posted a re-edited version of the "Is the Cure to Male Loneliness Out on the Pickleball Court?" meme that inserted an image of Michael Cera (originally shot by photographer Emily Shur[2] in 2008) and recaptioned the text with the phrase "thugging that shit out" (which means "To push through an obstacle. To remain strong during a hard time" according to Urban Dictionary [3]). Over the course of two weeks, the post gained roughly 3,500 likes (shown below).
Spread
Later on August 25th, the meme was reposted by other meme pages, such as Instagram[4] user @inhalemybees who gained roughly 185,800 likes in two weeks. On August 27th, the meme was reposted by iFunnier [5] @ThePrim8 who received roughly 12,000 smiles in 12 days. On August 28th, it was reposted by X [6] user @moristiko, gaining over 13,900 likes in 11 days.
On August 26th, 2023, Instagram[7] user @friendfoxx posted the first-known variation of the meme, using Trump's Mugshot, gaining 100 likes in 13 days (shown below). On August 27th, iFunnier[8] @TomLehrerist posted a cropped version of the meme, gaining roughly 2,000 smiles in 12 days.
On September 5th, 2023, TikToker [9] @literallyme9696 posted a photo slideshow of multiple iterations featuring images of actor Ryan Gosling and cats, among other subjects. The photos received roughly 868,400 plays and 193,700 likes in three days (examples shown below).
Thereafter, video iterations started to surface on TikTok, such as a cat video posted by TikToker[10] @teoteo7704 on August 6th, 2023, gaining roughly 987,100 plays and 289,500 likes in two days (shown below).
@teoteo7704 #thugitout #fyp ♬ original sound – suviatstuff
Various Examples
@greenfathr Apple
@lspritecranberryl #fyp #thugitout ♬ original sound – suviatstuff
Template
Search Interest
External References
[1] Instagram – @toucherofcancer
[2] Entertainment Weekly – 30 Under 30: The Actors
[3] Urban Dictionary – Thug it out
[4] Instagram – @inhalemybees
[6] X – @moristiko
[7] Instagram – @friendfoxx
[8] iFunny – @TomLehrerist
[9] TikTok – @literallyme9696
[10] TikTok – @teoteo7704
