About

Vanilla Extract is a joke expression that began growing popular on Tumblr in February of 2023. Its inception followed the introduction of Tumblr's poll feature the previous month. The joke, with occasional variations, involves creating a poll in which "vanilla extract" is included as an option, regardless of its relevance to the question the poll seeks to address.

Origin

Beginning January 19th, 2023, Tumblr^[1] users gained access to the website's new poll feature. As of February 7th, 2023 the feature is not available to all users. Some users began creating polls that, rather than simply surveying the opinions of the website's userbase, prompted them to perform as if they were executing real-world tasks.

On February 3rd, Tumblr user Relientk^[2] posted a poll that asked users to "bake a cake." Users could select from a list of common ingredients found in vanilla cake, presumably meant to "add" them in percentages roughly equivalent to their amounts in a cake batter. Soon after the poll opened, users noted that the distribution of selections was radically different from the actual proportions of cake batter ingredients. As of February 7th, "vanilla extract" accounts for 44% of the vote, despite most real cake recipes calling for less than a tablespoon of the ingredient (shown below). The post gained over 200,000 notes in four days and over 364,000 votes.

Spread

As the original poll continued to spread throughout Tumblr, other users began creating polls featuring "vanilla extract" as an option, even (or perhaps particularly) if it appears completely irrelevant to the initial prompt. Tumblr users, familiar with the origins of the joke, would generally vote for "vanilla extract" in statistically significant numbers. As such, the "joke" of Vanilla Extract can be said to be two-fold: 1. The inclusion of "vanilla extract" in polls where it would otherwise be an inappropriate or nonsensical response, and 2. The tendency for "vanilla extract" to win said polls.

Popular examples include a February 4th poll posted by user im-a-goat-in-disguise^[5] that gained over 31,000 notes and 112,000 votes in four days (shown below, left). User straightmansummer^[6] posted an example that gained over 6,100 notes in three days (shown below, right).

On February 6th, recognizing the meme's popularity, Tumblr's staff introduced a "vanilla extract" water bottle to the website's shop^[3], selling for $28 USD.

As noted by Tumblr user Sreegs^[4], a former Tumblr employee whose blog remains a popular presence on the site, the "Vanilla Extract" meme is essentially a new incarnation of the "comedy option" joke once common on Something Awful.

Baking Attempts

On February 5, Tumblr user neutr0ndance used the recipe from the original poll to bake a cake, blogging the process and result.^[7]

On February 10, YouTuber and Tumblr user Strange Æons uploaded a YouTube video baking the cake.^[8]

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References