Police officers have a duty to “protect and serve,” but certainly not to “slide,” if a viral August 1 video is anything to go by. In it, a Boston police officer can be heard rattling down a metal slide in the newly renovated playground at City Hall Plaza before shooting out of it like a T-shirt cannon. While various local outlets reported that the officer was injured from the experience, it sounds like he’s overall fine, which gave the internet the green light to tear into the video, memeing it into absurdity. People even began showing up at the cop slide to try it out themselves, though most failed to reach the extreme speed the cop somehow achieved.
Why it’s a 2: In addition to going viral across Twitter and TikTok, the cop-slide incident earned a comical level of coverage in the media. Cable news was all over it, even cajoling Boston mayor Michelle Wu into giving a statement (“Everything has a chance to be viral these days”), and a physicist wrote an extremely scientific breakdown of what he believes happened for Wired: “I would guess it has to be something about the clothes he’s wearing.”
Creator and former parenting influencer Bobbi Althoff went viral back in July for her podcast interview with Drake, but of course it wasn’t until Barstool founder Dave Portnoy inserted himself into the conversation that things got contentious. While Althoff and Drake’s interview received over 10 million views thanks to Althoff’s stoic stage persona and Drake’s playful banter, People reported that the video had disappeared from YouTube, as well as podcast platforms, on August 14. The pair had also reportedly unfollowed each other on Instagram.
Rumors began swirling — was this a publicity stunt or had something happened between Drake and Althoff? Portnoy revealed on an August 16 episode of the BFFs podcast that he had slid into Althoff’s DMs to get the scoop, specifically asking about the rumor that she and Drake had hooked up. Althoff, who is married with two children, said that she was not commenting publicly but that, off the record, “that is not true.” But in social-media clips of Portnoy’s retelling of their discussion, his words were bleeped and otherwise edited in a way that implied the two very much had hooked up. In response, Althoff released screenshots of their DMs on her Instagram Story and Portnoy later apologized both publicly and privately, in addition to removing the edited clip from Barstool’s social media. Drake, meanwhile, has spent the past month becoming a parenting influencer of his own.
Why it’s a 2: This drama sits at the intersection of two of the largest online fandoms most willing to debate a wall: rap music and Barstool Sports. Ask your annoying friends about it.
“iPhone face” is a term to describe an actor who just looks like they’ve seen the internet, and therefore can’t convincingly be in a historical period drama. “Skyler Gisondo face,” on the other hand, will henceforth be used to describe someone who looks like they’ve seen all of space and time, a descriptor that is so far reserved for…actor Skyler Gisondo. On August 13, The Righteous Gemstones star posted a photo of himself holding a white fluffy dog on Instagram. In it, he wears a far-off, dreamy expression, his hair blowing in the wind.
“he looks like the dust bowl woman … burdened yet beautiful,” Twitter user @becomingcry captioned the photo on Twitter. It went viral, with other users like @pwiscila photoshopping a lace dress, as well as a sweeping hairline and earrings, onto the original picture, exponentially increasing its Dust Bowl Energy. That same day, a new, similarly ethereal photo of Selena Gomez had dropped, taking this meme to nonsense levels.
Why it’s a 2: This bit of Twitter tomfoolery reached Gisondo himself. He shared the memes on his Instagram Story. “I’m crying,” he said in response to the first tweet, and when he came upon the photoshopped version he declared: “Ok this one’s my favorite.”