As the clock struck midnight, people on TikTok realized that internet humor has significantly declined in quality. In an attempt to bring back the humor society had in the 2010s, a movement called “the Great Meme Reset” began. What is it? Will it last? Is it a part of the very thing it seeks to undo?
First off, what is it? The Great Meme Reset is a movement designed to fix memes and brain rot by circulating older memes (typically from 2016), mainly on social media apps like Instagram and TikTok. Freshmen were interviewed to see if they had TikTok and if they knew about the Reset. There was a direct causation between having TikTok and knowledge of the Reset. “I had no idea what it was until you explained it,” says Amelia Raring (9).
Will it likely last? Every interviewee said they did not think it would last longer than a month. With the rise of meta-memes (such as the Great Meme Reset itself), and ephemeral internet trends, the interviewees’ predictions are statistically sound. Chloie Crowder says, “there’s no way it will last longer than January.”
It is important to cover the irony in the movement. The brain rot that the Reset is set to rid culture of is arguably in the older memes it recirculates. The fact that the Reset is a meta-meme is ironic enough, but on top of that, it is a repetitive meme, which is another aspect of current memes the Reset is trying to solve.
Soon, the Great Meme Reset will be forgotten and lost in an abyss of short-lived trends, but for now it is still alive. How much longer, however, is unknown.
