Target Balls

Submission 5,517

About

Target Balls, also known as Target Cement Spheres, refer to the giant, red cement balls that are put outside Target storefronts, typically in suburban areas. Many people in the United States have a nostalgic connection to them because of their obscure nature that causes fascination in children who want to play on them or touch them. Although Target balls have been a subject on the internet since at least as early as 2011, they became a more prevalent meme subject starting in late 2018 on Reddit.

Origin

The earliest known piece of internet media relating to Target balls is a YouTube^[1] video called "Target Ball Kick" that was uploaded on April 20th, 2011. The video (shown below) received roughly 3,600 views and 35 likes over the course of 10 years.

Spread

Target balls received more meme attention in the subreddit /r/mildlyinteresting^[2] on May 24th, 2014, when Redditor dproff posted a photo of a cracked Target ball being replaced. The post received roughly 1,000 upvotes over the course of seven years.

In August 2016, Target ran a publicity campaign of painting the balls outside their storefronts to look like Pokéballs. They made a post^[3] to their website about it on August 25th, 2016. Instagram^[4] posts and tweets^[5] were also inspired by this campaign.

On December 5th, 2018, a now-deleted Redditor made a post to the /r/comedyheaven^[6] subreddit. The post included a screenshot of an eBay listing that was selling a Target ball for $40. The image (shown below) received 659 upvotes over the course of three years. This meme most notably gave Target balls an increased status as an exploitable.

The Target ball eBay screenshot added to a continuing meta involving an eBay screenshot of a Walmart Pole that surfaced online beforehand. The two screenshots began to appear in memes together as competing cursed images. For instance, on December 9th, 2018, Instagram^[7] page @newincognitotab posted a meme using the Minion or Da Bob format. The meme (shown below) received roughly 4,000 likes over the course of three years.

On October 20th, 2020, a Target ball meme was posted to /r/OkBuddyRetard by Redditor^[8] InnoVisionsss following the What If We Kissed In format but instead saying "What If We Vibed On The Target Balls." The meme (shown below) received roughly 6,100 upvotes over the course of one year.

More memes began surfacing on /r/OkBuddyRetard revolving around Target balls, like a meme^[9] posted on October 24th, 2020, involving Target balls made to look like Barack Obama.

Target balls continued to be used as an exploitable reference going into 2021. Even the verified Twitter^[10] account of Target made a Target ball meme, posting it on May 21st, 2021.

Target ball content began to surface on TikTok in 2021 as well, starting with a video posted on April 26th, 2021, by TikToker^[11] @kingaxios. The video (shown below) received roughly 4.5 million plays and 732,800 likes over the course of six months.