Backstreet Boys Reunion Tour

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About

Backstreet Boys Reunion Tour is a slang term for the Coronavirus Outbreak started by the Game Grumps. Due to YouTube's policy of demonetizing videos that mention the Coronavirus, the group began joking that the recent major news event affecting people's lives was referring to the recently announced Backstreet Boys world tour. The joke stuck and has been referenced widely by the Game Grumps fandom and in Reddit communities outside of Game Grumps.

Origin

On March 31st, 2020, Game Grumps began a Let's Play of Super Mario Galaxy 2, the first video they had recorded under quarantine. While explaining the situation, Arin Hanson warned Dan that they couldn't say "the word" ("Coronavirus") because YouTube was demonetizing videos that used the word. After briefly discussing the "major event" affecting the world, Dan joked he was referring to the recently announced Backstreet Boys North American tour,^[1] which he referred to as the Backstreet Boys "Reunion" Tour. They later went on to make jokes which referred to contracting the Coronavirus as "getting tickets to the Backstreet Boys Reunion Tour," etc.

Spread

They continued making jokes about the "Backstreet Boys Reunion Tour" in subsequent videos. This inspired fans to begin making similar jokes on Reddit. On April 1st, Redditor specialopps^[2] posted a picture of themself and their cat watching Game Grumps, titling the image, "Me and my girl avoiding the Backstreet Boys reunion tour" (shown below, left). User _Installation04^[3] joked, "Shout out to all the medical workers during this Backstreet Boys reunion tour. We appreciate you!", gaining over 200 points (shown below, right).

Other users made various image macros and Game Grumps references incorporating "Backstreet Boys Reunion Tour." For example, user WIDTL^[4] posted fan art of the pair which called self-isolation the "reunion tour," gaining over 2,000 points (shown below, left). User Anasthera^[5] made a Perfection parody, gaining over 3,600 points (shown below, right). The uptick in jokes led to an inquiry in /r/OutOfTheLoop.^[6]