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Top 10: Memes of 2018, Honorable Mention #9: Moth Lamp

In this top 10, our writer breaks down their favourite memes that came out of 2018. Pray for them and their sanity.


Everyone I know hates moths, and I really don’t blame them. They’re small, fuzzy, and dusty. They flap around erratically. They eat clothes. In most ordinary circumstances, we all chant “Fuck moths!” with vim and vigour.

Something seemed to happen this year, though, to make that change a little. Someone posted a huge, scary-looking moth on Reddit. It lay eagerly outside the poster’s window, light glinting off its eyes. It looked hungry for something. Something luminous. Something bright.

And thus, moths became a site for humour instead of horror. People started making jokes all over the web about moths coming up to people asking for lamps. While I didn’t personally find this meme all that amazing, I found it good for a chuckle or two; it was just absurd enough to make me appreciate it.

More powerful variations of the meme came with its mashup with lööp cat and the “Brother May I Have Some Oats,” adding yet another layer of absurdity to the mix. Another addition came from Youtube meme master Grandayy, who made a heartbreaking video about a romance between a moth and a lamp.

If anything, this goes to show that Moth Lamp is heavily lacking in substance, requiring remixes with other memes or contexts in order to be consistently funny. Despite this, I’m just impressed that people were willing to make memes about an insect that would normally be revolting.

Andrew McWhinney

Andrew McWhinney is a fifth-year English and political science combined honors student, as well as The Gateway's 2019-20 Editor-in-Chief. He was previously The Gateway's 2018-19 Opinion Editor. An aspiring journalist with too many opinions, he's a big fan of political theory, hip-hop, and being alive.

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