Travel Memes

Will Butler:

You're listening to Say My Meme, the podcast that describes the Internet's best memes for a blind audience. I'm your co-host Will Butler from Be My Eyes. And I'm joined by Caroline Desrosiers from Scribely. So Caroline, have you been on a plane yet?

Caroline Desrosiers:

I have not. No.

Will Butler:

No.

Caroline Desrosiers:

No. Well, I love traveling, but it just seems like a lot of work right now. So I have avoided it, but I have a few trips coming up where I'm crossing the country and I absolutely have to.

Will Butler:

It is weird once you start, when you do it for the first time, but then pretty quickly you get back into the rhythm of it and all the same things that were annoying about traveling before are still annoying, turns out.

Caroline Desrosiers:

Ah.

Will Butler:

But all the wonderful things are there too. So there's just a few extra lines at airport security and whatnot.

Caroline Desrosiers:

Oh fun.

Will Butler:

So, but I understand that you have been thinking about that this week. Can you tell me a little bit about the memes you put together this week and maybe we'll tell folks a little bit about our new format.

Caroline Desrosiers:

Yeah. So this week we're doing travel memes. So they're all kind of, focused around different aspects of travel or different types of travel.

Will Butler:

In the name of experimentation and trying to always provide a better listening experience for those of you who can't see these memes, we tried a new format this week. Basically, Caroline, you just sent me the alt text and challenged me to figure out what these memes were without ever seeing the visuals. And so I'm going to attempt to describe them to our audience. Having never seen them.

Caroline Desrosiers:

Yes. I think-

Will Butler:

But I'm going to rely on you for help.

Caroline Desrosiers:

Yeah. I think it's going to be interesting because there's a lot more to just the description. There's actually getting the joke and that aspect to memes. So we're going to explore, whether alt texts can stand on its own.

Will Butler:

Yeah. We're putting your alt text to the test here because I've never seen these memes and I've only read the text, but I'm going to do my best. And maybe you can step in if I really screw up these memes. How about that?

Caroline Desrosiers:

Let's do it.

Will Butler:

Okay. So this first one, you called road trip. As I understand it, this is a meme about a feeling that we're all very familiar with. Is that accurate?

Caroline Desrosiers:

I would say so. I'd say this has happened to everyone.

Will Butler:

Okay. Okay. Okay. So it's, Yo-Yo Ma performing on a stage and there's an image projected on a big screen in the background, probably like a jumbotron or something. And he's holding on his bow to stroke the strings of his cello, his eyes are closed. His head is tilting back and away like he's just totally relaxed or nodding off or something like that. And the screen projection is a closeup of his face. His brows are pulled in and up with emotion. And the caption of this meme says, when you take a pee after a long road trip. So I assume this is just about Yo-Yo Ma looking like he's in total ecstasy, right?

Caroline Desrosiers:

Yeah, totally. Yeah. He's really feeling this moment and is just like moved by the music.

Will Butler:

Moved by the music. That's a new way of describing it.

Caroline Desrosiers:

Yeah.

Will Butler:

Okay. Well, how'd I do on that one? Did I do okay?

Caroline Desrosiers:

I think you did great. Yeah. So.

Will Butler:

Okay.

Caroline Desrosiers:

Yeah, I think it came through. It's very simple. It's pretty nice to take a pee after a long road trip. We might've,

Will Butler:

Absolutely.

Caroline Desrosiers:

Maybe felt this way.

Will Butler:

There's got to be another Yo-Yo Ma meme where he's like intensely, bowing and has a different face. And it's like, right before you get home and you need to pee.

Caroline Desrosiers:

Oh my God. That would be a great side-by-side right there.

Will Butler:

That's probably... Yeah. Yeah. Okay. This next one is a little tougher. You called it broke traveler, which I feel like is a hint at the meaning, but I... Okay. So, well, I'll just read the alt texts that you gave me and try to piece it through. So we got Kermit the Frog he's sitting with his legs stretched out on a white bedspread. His body is turned and slightly hunched over to one side. He leans on one hand, gesturing down to a small pile of coins with the other. His eyes are downcast at the change in front of him and his mouth is wide open and the punchline says, travel as much as you can.

Caroline Desrosiers:

Yeah.

Will Butler:

So this one, well what suggested via email was that like, this was about the regrets you have when you die. I was envisioning Kermit on his deathbed being like travel, travel more, but I didn't understand where the coins came from. And then you were like, well, look at the title. Well, it says broke traveler. So am I just totally missing this? What is this meme about?

Caroline Desrosiers:

Yeah. You know what, it's interesting because when you read kind of the way the alt text is composed, it does kind of have this melancholy tone to it. He's hunched over and he's leaning on one hand and gesturing to coins and his eyes downcast. Yeah. I can see how you got that vibe, but really, I think this is just a meme about travel as much as you can with little to no money. So it's like, that's the advice that people give you, right? Maybe on their death bed or regretting, like you should travel more, but it's like, this is what I've got. I can't. So that's kind of like the meaning to me,

Will Butler:

Oh.

Caroline Desrosiers:

He's looking down at it and he's like, oh, this is all I got.

Will Butler:

Oh, I get it. So yeah. because everyone's always like travel as much as you can. if I had one piece of advice to you travel. And so we see Kermit here being like, well, what the hell am I supposed to go with this?

Caroline Desrosiers:

Right. That's cute.

Will Butler:

Okay.

Caroline Desrosiers:

Thanks for the suggestion.

Will Butler:

Got it. Got it.

Caroline Desrosiers:

I can't do that.

Will Butler:

Look at how many coins I have. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I think the word that threw me off was bedspread and I was like, oh, it's important that he's in bed. And so that was what took me down the morbid deathbed route.

Caroline Desrosiers:

That's so interesting.

Will Butler:

Okay.

Caroline Desrosiers:

Yeah. So it's yeah, that started you off down a different train of thought. No, he is just actually sitting on a white bedspread.

Will Butler:

Okay. This one is called impatient, de planers. And to me, this one was great because you don't even need to understand the visual to get it. But it is something that if you've never seen this happen on a plane before, we might want to explain it a bit. So it's a crowd of people in an airplane cabin waiting to deplane. And the photo is taken from the back of the plane now looking toward the front, toward the forward exit. The overhead bins are down. People are standing up, stuck in that line of deplaning, crowding the aisle. But the funny part about this is the caption, which says, imagine meeting your soulmate and then finding out that they stand up as soon as the plane lands, which is hilarious, because there are always those people who jump up as the plane lands. And they're always like that asshole. Right.

Caroline Desrosiers:

Yeah.

Will Butler:

But someone's got to be the first one to stand up.

Caroline Desrosiers:

Yeah. I mean, I found myself thinking about this. I was like, why does that always happen? That's a human thing. Right? They tell you, they ding the battle, like seatbelts can come off and then everyone immediately stands up. And if you're that person that's trying to stay seated and just wait your turn, you're just surrounded by people. And one of the guys in this photo, just off to the left is leaning over because you can't fully stand up if you're at the window seat. Your head will hit the overhead bin.

Will Butler:

Oh yeah.

Caroline Desrosiers:

So he's just chilling there halfway hunched over. Just stay seated.

Will Butler:

Yeah. Yeah. Oh yeah. No, the rapid standards, you want to be careful about those people.

Caroline Desrosiers:

Yeah, not cool.

Will Butler:

This next one is called street food. And this is one for The Lord of the Rings fans, because it's a freeze frame from The Lord of the Rings movie showing close-up of Ian McKellen, who's Gandalf, straight white hair, wizard stuff, parted down the middle, mustache, beard. And he's looking forward with his famous Gandalf look, looking all intense and eyebrows raised, mouth slightly open. And the punchline is when you eat dodgy street food. And it's a quote from Gandalf saying, things are now in motion that cannot be undone, which having just been in Mexico, I totally know the feeling. But I was thinking about movie memes, Caroline. And it was like, do you think movie memes are harder to describe?

Caroline Desrosiers:

I mean, yeah. Because you kind of have to just assume that people either have watched the movie or know of the movie, because it would just take far too long to describe all of that context in alt text. So I feel like you need an intro in order to understand it if you haven't watched that movie.

Will Butler:

Right. It's almost like if you can't get it by me saying, it's Gandalf saying things are now in motion that can't be undone, then it's probably going to take too long for you to get it.

Caroline Desrosiers:

Right. Exactly. Yeah. But I mean, you might get it if you've never seen Lord of the Rings, just knowing like he's an intense wizard guy and,

Will Butler:

Right.

Caroline Desrosiers:

He's staring off and obviously he's very intimidating and important. And maybe that's all you need to know because it's a simple concept.

Will Butler:

And maybe you could tell me, is there a look on his face like he might have just eaten some dodgy street food?

Caroline Desrosiers:

Yeah. I mean, you might make this face, like what have I done?

Will Butler:

Right. Right.

Caroline Desrosiers:

Yeah. They're in motion. I can't go back. I'm immediately regretting this.

Will Butler:

Yeah.

Caroline Desrosiers:

Yeah.

Will Butler:

Perfect. Well, there's a rich tradition of memes also based around the airline safety cards, going back to planes here. And I remember growing up even the early internet, there were all these fake captions on airplane safety cards. And this is what I understood to be kind of a particularly salty one or a cutting one showing one of the illustrations of a guy on an airline safety card with the emergency landed plane, the front doors open. That yellow inflatable slide that you're supposed to go down is sticking out of the plane, extending down to the ground. And the illustrated guy is sliding down, seated in this rigid position with his legs out and his arms crossed over his chest with his hands grasping his shoulders. Because that's how they tell you you're supposed to go down a slide. And the caption says, evacuation procedures come naturally to Phil since he's used to hugging only himself.

Caroline Desrosiers:

Aww.

Will Butler:

Correct me if I'm wrong here, but this is just like a mean joke about Phil, about a lonely guy, right?

Caroline Desrosiers:

Yeah. Just like yeah, taking the airline safety card, right, and just making it about like, they add this guy who's living this lonely life and maybe was flying alone and has no one. And he's like, oh yeah, hug myself. No problem. I have to do that all the time. I really liked this one. I just picture the creator of this meme being that person that's so intensely bored on the plane, they actually read the safety card and then they start to see the humor in it.

Will Butler:

Yeah. Oh my gosh. I think, it was a long time ago, but they had like a whole bunch of airline safety cards. That was like early memes, I think.

Caroline Desrosiers:

Yeah.

Will Butler:

This next one is, I was scared because this next one is called that hoe friend. And I was like, oh gosh, what are we getting ourselves into? But as I understand, it's just pictures of dogs. We've got a happy little Yorkshire terrier, standing close to the camera in shallow water appearing to be having a nice time. And then in the background close to the beach and out in the water, you got a white Labrador retriever humping a boxer from behind. And the punchline is when you go on vacation with your hoe ass friend. I can't believe you made me read this one.

Caroline Desrosiers:

I love it. Yeah. Like our first mildly inappropriate meme. I make you read it.

Will Butler:

Yeah. You make me do it. Okay. I see what this episode was all about. No, I mean, my interpretation of this is like, we all act like animals sometimes. And this is one that captures that feeling that many of us, when we're single have felt on, maybe you go on a friend trip and you guys are, oh, we're single. We're going to have so much fun. And then you've got that friend who you're just trying to hang out on the beach. Where'd they go? Oh.

Caroline Desrosiers:

Doing their hoe thing. [crosstalk 00:15:02].

Will Butler:

Yeah. Yeah.

Caroline Desrosiers:

Yeah. I mean, it's true. It's like, you go with a group of friends, everyone arrives with a different goal in mind. And that's why you have to be careful who you travel with. Travel with people that you feel like, I don't know, have the same intentions. If that's going to bother you, you can travel with some of your best friends and then experience this.

Will Butler:

Let me try to get one last meme in here. So this one you called baby elephant. And so my interpretation of this was just like a couple of funny images that maybe you have to see to fully wrap your head around. So maybe you can kind of give me some context. But it's four photos of a baby elephant rolling around on an ocean beach. And the first photo he's rolled on his side, he's got his leg in the air. The second photo he's face planted in the sand. There's a breaking wave. His butts in the air. The third photo, the same baby elephant on his side, leg stretched out, laying down. And then in the fourth photo, he's on his side again, head down. His front legs are held and his back legs are stretched out in some sort of weird yoga pose or something. But the punchline is basically like photos of me enjoying the drinks package on a cruise. It's just like, this elephant just looks wasted. Right?

Caroline Desrosiers:

Exactly. Yeah. And it is about how cute this baby elephant is. And the fact that someone took this baby elephant to the beach and just got all these amazing shots of just like, it's having a great time rolling around in the sand. And then some moments that are kind of like, maybe there's a struggle here like the head in the sand right when the wave is crashing. Maybe baby elephant didn't intend that moment. But yeah, I mean, and that's kind of like enjoying the drinks package. Yeah, I'm having fun. Now I'm a little bit tired or now I've just like face-planted. So I think it's just, it's mostly just a cute meme, I think.

Will Butler:

It raises some philosophical questions about what does enjoyment really look like?

Caroline Desrosiers:

Right. Exactly.

Will Butler:

Oh, well, that was a great bunch of travel memes. How did I do? You feel like you're alt texts served me in understanding these memes?

Caroline Desrosiers:

I mean, I think you did a really good job. Yeah. It is like partly the setup I feel like, and you really introduced those well. But yeah, listeners, if one was one of those was confusing, let us know. Maybe there's a better way to describe it or something. But yeah, I think you've got it.

Will Butler:

Well, thank you, Caroline, as always. And we'll see you next week. We've been trolling Instagram, and we've been finding some amazing stuff on Instagram. So be sure to follow us on Instagram for more fun content coming out over the next several weeks. And Caroline, did you have a nice 4th of July?

Caroline Desrosiers:

I did. Yeah. Yeah. I'm celebrating America. Very proud.

Will Butler:

We're recording this before the 4th of July. That was why I asked her that. It was to put her on her toes. Sorry.

Caroline Desrosiers:

Yeah. I think everyone knows at this point that we record on Fridays.

Will Butler:

All right, everyone have a great week. Take care.

Caroline Desrosiers:

Later.

‍