Welcome to the Weekly Meme Roundup. May I offer you a sandwich in this trying time? Oh, sorry, Greta Thunberg took the last one. Maybe next time.

This week, the girls were fighting, and by "girls" we mean two of the most powerful men on Earth, the "Tunnel Effect" baffled the internet and made thousands of eyes roll, and The Haliban continued to cause chaos around social media.

Here are five of the biggest memes of the week that you need to catch up on.

Greta Thunberg Smiling at a Sandwich

Swedish activist Greta Thunberg has been vocally supporting Palestine for months now, but a photo of her smiling at a sandwich handed to her by an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) member is now being used against her as a meme.

The image comes straight from the official Israel Foreign Ministry X account. It was posted after a ship containing Thunberg, journalists and other activists traveling with aid for Gaza was intercepted by Israel as it was passing through one of Israel's blockades.

The IDF commandeered the ship, seemingly gave everyone on board water and sandwiches, then deported Thunberg and several other people aboard. The other people aboard refused to be deported and were held to plead their case to Israeli officials. To the media, Thunberg claimed that this was a "kidnapping," although some people didn't seem to agree with the claim.

Israel posted the photo as the story was going viral, and now people are making memes out of it. Most of the memes look to discredit Thunberg's extreme claims about the incident, using the photo to suggest that she and the others were actually treated quite well by the IDF. Thunberg says the photo is just a PR stunt by Israel to make her look bad and to distract from the plight of the Palestinians.

Regardless of your opinion, the meme has been everywhere this week, and it's probably worth knowing the full context behind the strange image if nothing else.

Examples

The Girls Are Fighting

Two of the most powerful men on earth got into a very public breakup recently that brought the old catchphrase "The Girls Are Fighting" to new heights.

The phrase stems back to September 2018, when rappers Nicki Minaj and Cardi B reportedly got into a fight at New York Fashion Week. Azealia Banks decided to react to the news during an Instagram livestream while using a bunny filter. Her reaction was, "Whaaat? What is the tea, the girls are fighting! Nooo… the girls are fighting, why?!"

The clip and catchphrase then went viral over the next few years, inspiring memes and getting a whole lot of people saying, "The girls are fighting" to describe people's falling outs.

Now, the phrase has reached new heights thanks to the explosive falling out of Elon Musk and the good ol' President of the United States of America. This week has seen a huge explosion in examples of the meme and simply people using the phrase to react to the breakup.

Examples

Tunnel Effect

Like Hollow Purple and the Kamehameha, the anime phenomenon The Tunnel Effect has become a meme, only this one is grounded in reality, making it kind of absurd.

The Tunnel Effect memes originate from the manga series Sakamoto Days. Its entire premise seems overly complicated and bizarre.

In one scene in the manga, Atari describes it to another character after he survives a slice from a sword, saying, "It's a phenomenon where a particle can penetrate a barrier greater than its own energy, making the particle in his body and the sword miraculously not collide."

Understood? Well, that's about the best explanation you're going to get. The Tunnel Effect is actually a real phenomenon, which is fuelling a lot of the memes about the manga moment.

Memes about the Tunnel Effect have been going viral all over the place lately. Many of the memes show characters from other manga and anime series benefiting from and using the effect, while others are edits of the original panels where it is explained. A lot of the memes also poke fun at the idea of the character experiencing the Tunnel Effect, painting it as entirely absurd.

Examples

The Haliban

New York Nicks fans have been going through it recently, and they've started The Haliban meme to vent their frustrations.

The meme really got started at the end of May, when the Nicks lost to the Indiana Pacers. The two teams have a big rivalry. The loss was devastating, and it brought an old nickname for Pacers player Tyrese Haliburton back into the limelight.

That nickname is "The Haliban," a portmanteau combining "Haliburton" with "Taliban" that's meant to describe the devastating feeling of the loss, likening the loss to a bomb going off in New York City. It's a pretty extreme comparison, but it took off, and Haliban memes have been spreading ever since.

The memes are mostly used when the Pacers get a win. The meme also inspired a spin-off meme that refers to Oklahoma City Thunder player Shai Gilgeous-Alexander as ShaISIS. Keep it classy, NBA fans.

Examples

Deltarune Memes (Kris' Pronouns, Your Taking Too Long, etc.)

Since the release of Deltarune: Chapters 1-4 this month, the game's community has been whipping out memes at an unprecedented volume, leading formats like Your Taking Too Long to take over social media feeds everywhere.

Deltarune has always been a massive repository for memes, and this week has proved that. All over social media, one-off memes featuring the game's characters, fan art and old meme formats based on the series have been going viral. There has also been a flurry of new memes, including the "Your Taking Too Long" meme.

The meme is based on a specific boss battle from the game, and the pumpkin-headed boss and his signature catchphrase have easily become one of the biggest memes from the game's new fourth chapter.

The game has also brought back old memes and debates, like the debates over the protagonist Kris' pronouns and whether or not Noelle is trans.

Clearly, the game is being enjoyed by a lot of people, and you don't have to look any further than the memes to know it.

Examples

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We'll be back next Friday with another edition of our Weekly Meme Roundup series, so stay tuned!

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