Finally, Upgrade

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About

Finally, Upgrade refers a series of memes in which wizards and scientists discover upgraded versions of musical bands and cultural phenomena. Spawned by a viral meme in which a wizard discovers "Mambo No. 6," an upgraded version of "Mambo No. 5", the trend found a significant presence on Facebook in late February 2020. The format is a derivative of both Finally, Synthetic Watermelon snowclone and Foo Fighters vs. the Foo meme.

Origin

The author of the original meme is unknown. On February 17th, 2020, Tumblr^[1] user sovietnam reposted an image of a white-haired bearded wizard smoking a pipe and holding a glowing orb captioned "Finally, Mambo No. 6," as if the wizard has obtained a more advanced version of the popular song "Mambo No. 5". The post received over 49,000 likes and reblogs in ten days (shown below).

Spread

On February 19th, 2020, sovietnam's meme was reposted by a number of prominent Instagram and Facebook pages. For example, a February 19th, 2020, repost by Instagram^[2] account grapejuiceboys received over 65,000 likes in one week. Same-day reposts by Facebook^[3]^[4] groups "Memes Ruined My Life" and "It was just a meme bro" received over 460 and 3,000 likes and over 300 and 1,300 shares, respectively.

Also on February 19th, 2020, Instagram^[5] account @cabbagecatmemes posted the first known derivative of the format, joking about Cardi B (post no longer available, reupload^[6] by Memes Ruined My Life shown below, left). The format did not see further spread until on February 22nd Facebook^[7] page Pen 15 Memes posted a version of the meme about Blink-182 which received over 1,000 reactions and 7,600 shares in five days (shown below, right).

On February 23rd, 2020, Facebook^[8] user Maël Temps posted a meme about Death Grips' album "The Powers That B" to Facebook group "Death Grips Snitchposting" which received over 1,500 reactions and 280 shares in four days (shown below, left). On February 25th, 2020, Facebook^[9] group "Incoming memes" posted a meme about Maroon 5 which received over 7,600 reactions and 3,700 shares in two days (shown below, center).

Starting on February 26th, 2020, the format gained significant popularity in music-themed meme communities on Facebook such as "shitpost musiqe memes stash,"^[10] with multiple variations of the meme posted in the following days. For example, a Post Malone meme posted in "Dig Bick Memes"^[11] group on February 26th received over 350 reactions and 3,500 shares in one day (shown below, right).

Starting on February 26th, 2020, memes based on the format also appeared in the /r/okbuddyretard subreddit. For example, on that day Redditor^[12] 4otie7 posted a Kanye West meme which received over 23,500 upvotes in one day.

Foo Fighters vs. Foo

Foo Fighters vs. the Foo refers to a series of jokes and memes which imagine the rock band Foo Fighters protecting the society from a threat known as "foo." Originating from a Dam Edit meme posted in December 2019, the joke gained significant popularity online in mid-February 2020.

Finally, Synthetic Watermelon

Finally, Synthetic Watermelon, also known as Finally, Watermelonium and Finally, X, refers to snowclone memes based on a stock photograph of a male scientist holding a test tube filled with green liquid. The meme initially spread in the early 2010s as a reference to the racist stereotype that African Americans' have an unusual taste for watermelon. In 2019, the format gained popularity as a snowclone, particularly in connection to Obamium memes.

Evil X Be Like

Evil X Be Like refers to an image macro trend that uses the catchphrase template "Evil X Be Like." Meme creators primarily insert a well-known musician or other pop culture icon into the catchphrase template. Then, they change around in the bottom caption of the image macro a popular song lyric or quote from that pop culture icon, making it "evil." The trend started on Facebook in September 2021 but saw the most amount of usage across iFunny going into October 2021.