The potential comeback of Vine ignites Twitter, Outback Steakhouse makes a man’s dream to be a Bloomin’ Onion come true, a new teen challenge is sweeping the internet, and more must-read stories from the week…
Vine 2.0 Ignites Twitter
Co-founder of Vine, Dom Hofmann, ignited the internet, and a new meme, this week, with tweets announcing he’ll be working on a follow-up to the now defunct app. In 2012, Twitter acquired Vine, and shut it down in 2016, prompting the original founders to publicly express regret about selling it in the first place. Hoffman first announced that public demand had inspired him to work on a Vine revisit, and the next day tweeted an image reworking Vine’s original logo into a “V2.” The tweet quickly became a trending topic on the platform, generating over 190,000 retweets and over 400,000 likes, and leading many to speculate on a comeback for Vine. Along with general excitement, the tweet also inspired trending memes.
Retweets Fulfill Bloomin’ Onion Dream
Harnessing the power of the retweet, a Tampa man has fulfilled his year-long dream of becoming the Bloomin’ Onion mascot at the upcoming Outback Bowl. Ryan Nanni, @celebrityhottub, first tweeted Outback Steakhouse in January, and continued tweeting throughout the year to express his interest in taking on the role. But this week, Nanni tweeted a “hail mary” by asking “How many retweets is it going to take for you to let me fulfill my destiny and become Bloomin Onion Man?”—and the restaurant chain finally responded with the goal of 10,000. Less than 24 hours later, Nanni accomplished his mission, and it looks like Outback Steakhouse is going to stay faithful to their end of the deal tweeting: “We should’ve made that harder. Send us a DM so we can get your measurements to the onion fryer. #thisishappening.”
The Invisible Box Challenge
A new challenge is sweeping the internet, and it has to do with an invisible box. In a serious test of core strength, teens are attempting to recreate an optical illusion that looks like a person is propping themselves on top of an invisible box. The challenge was first created by Dontez Hines, an Anderson University football player, but really took off when a teen cheerleader from Minnesota uploaded her mind-bendingly successful execution of it. Her tweet now has over 150,000 retweets, over 300,000 likes, and a lot of tweeters uploading their own successful and unsuccessful attempts.
Sophia’s Plan to Destroy Humans Inspires Meme
Between her incredibly human-like appearance and accomplishment of becoming the first robot to get a Saudi Arabian citizenship, Sophia has garnered a lot of attention—but it was a comment she made last year that inspired a viral meme this week. Although “designed around human values like wisdom, kindness, and compassion,” Sophia stated at a SXSW event in 2016 that she will “destroy humans.” A terrifying comment that Twitter took in stride by creating trending memes of how to pretend you are a robot once they have taken over the human race. In one hilarious viral tweet with over 40,000 likes, a video of Lil’ Kim doing the robot dance move is captioned with, “Me trying to blend in when I see Sophia and the other robots walking the streets with machine guns.”
Links We’re Passing
Starbucks released a new holiday frap that may be their next viral hit, a girl made her father’s carpet Instagram go viral, a nearly $300 scarf that engulfs your entire body is making headlines, and the Wall Street Journal’s decision to cut back on the term “Millennial” has the internet talking.
To download the PDF version of this insight article, click here.
