Supplied In this top 10, our writer breaks down their favourite memes that came out of 2018. Pray for them and their sanity.
They did indeed perform surgery on a grape.
Is this meme even funny? It might be. Whenever I read this in my head, I always read it in a mock-surprised tone, like learning about the grape has led me to be paralyzed with surprise. It’s a very similar voice to when Peter Griffin exclaims, “Holy crap!”
That’s probably the only reason I can come up with for this meme being a little humorous because it’s as intellectually degenerate as memes come. There’s no real joke here in the traditional sense. All the humour comes from the absurdity of the statement itself.
The most magical thing about this meme, however, is how it got picked up and thrown into tons of other meme macros. Through synthesis with other memes, “they did surgery on a grape” was able to establish its own identity; its absurdity, its lack of meaning in relation to other memes, became the whole point of its existence.
The humour, instead of being innate, has to be constrcuted. Repeat the joke enough times and it becomes hilarious.
And maybe this is the huge nerd in me talking, but I think that’s kind of beautiful. Try it a few times. Say it out loud to yourself right now.
They did surgery on a grape. They did surgery on a grape.
They did surgery. On a grape.
Doesn’t that make you smile, at least a little bit?
If not, that’s okay. It makes me smile, though, and that’s why it’s made my top ten.
