Antonymic Misinterpretation / X Implies the Existence of Y

Submission 10,974

Part of a series on Misinterpretation (Comedy Trope). [View Related Entries]

About

Antonymic Misinterpretation refers to a group of memes that use contextual antonyms also out of their context to produce a humorous effect when the situation is imagined. The common pairs of words used in the meme are "casual" and "competitive," "domestic" and "international" and "based" and "cringe," with the snowclones X Implies the Existence of Y and Enough X, We Are Going Y often used to structure the memes.

Origin

On November 1st, 2015, Twitter^[8] user @hankgreen tweeted "I like how the existence of 'fun sized' candy bars implies that normal-sized candy bars are NOT SOMETHING TO JOKE ABOUT." (shown below, left), with the tweet gaining over 700 retweets and 1,800 likes. The tweet was the first to utilize "X Implies the Existence of Y" joke format for an antonymic pair.

On April 22nd, 2018, Twitter^[9] user @bobby tweeted "dr. pepper implies the existence of a shadowy, enigmatic figure called simply 'dr. salt.' i must taste his mystery drink" (shown below, right), applying the contextual antonymic pair "pepper" and "salt" to an unrelated context. The tweet gained over 700 retweets and 4,700 likes in three years.

Spread

In the following year, the format saw gradual spread on Twitter, with occasional use on other sites. On June 22nd, 2018, Tumblr^[10] user prokopetz posted the earliest derivative meme using the misinterpretation format, with their post gaining over 80,900 likes in three years (shown below, top left). February 27th and April 25th, 2019, tweets ^[11]^[12]by @nise_shi and @AndrewChamings gained over 8,900 retweets and 23,800 likes and 6,000 retweets and 38,400 likes, respectively (shown below, top right and bottom).

On October 8th, 2019, Twitter^[1] user @_jazzghost_ tweeted "casual sex implies the existence of ranked competitive sex," applying the antonymic pair "casual" and "competitive" that is used in contexts of sports and video games to an unrelated context. The tweet received over 118,300 retweets and 493,700 likes in two years.

In the following months, the tweet received viral spread online through multiple reposts. On October 16th, 2019, Redditor^[2] WhiteicusMaximus used the tweet as a setup for a joke. The post (shown below, left) received over 46,700 upvotes in six months. On November 13th, 2019, Instagram^[3] user shitheadsteve made a post that used the misinterpretation format, making a joke about jazz. The post (shown below, right) received over 114,000 likes, with a November 14th, 2019, repost to /r/dankmemes^[4] gaining over 22,300 likes.

In 2020 and 2021, several pairs of contextual antonyms gained particular popularity within the format in addition to "casual" and "competitive" ("ranked"), including "domestic" and "international" from a February 20th, 2020 post by Redditor^[5] Desert_Fox13 (shown below, top left) and "based" and "cringe" from a February 20th, 2021, tweet^[6] by user @rosalinairl (shown below, top right). Additionally, the format spawned the viral word "shampiss," coined by Facebook^[7] user Sponge Bryan on August 11th, 2020 (shown below, bottom).

In 2021, the format maintained a notable presence online, particularly on Twitter, with "X Implies the Existence of Y" and "Enough X, We Are Going Y" remaining the two most popular phrasal templates within the format.