How the Roach Getting Into His Car Meme Went Viral
You wouldn’t think an image of a cockroach climbing into a car would be particularly engaging. But, that’s exactly what it turned out to be. In July 2021, One Twitter user sent a meme to her friend or supposed partner as a response to how their conversation was going. This meme has now joined some of the other huge internet trends of recent times.
The most popular tweets ever include two from a Japanese billionaire offering millions of Yen to anyone who retweeted. And sometimes these tweets become more than just temporary news fodder. One tweet by a Wendy’s fan became a marketer’s dream.
How a tweet can go viral and what it’s worth
In April 2017, Carter Wilkerson cheekily messaged Wendy’s Twitter account with an unusual request. Carter asked how many retweets he needed to get free Wendy’s chicken nuggets for a year. The response? 18 million retweets needed.
As of July 2020, Carter Wilkerson had the third most retweeted post of all time, only beaten by a billionaire giving away hard cash. Carter got his free nuggets when he himself became the most popular tweet ever, and Wendy’s also gave away $100,000 to charity. A mere drop in the ocean compared to the average marketing budget.
Wendy’s found publicity that money wouldn’t have been able to pay for. Memes and tweets can provide a moment of fun, or they can become an internet sensation, as a roach getting into a car proved.
Where did the roach getting into his car meme come from?
A Twitter user by the name of @fleekynu joked with a partner or friend that they had seen a photo of them getting into another girl’s car. As proof of this purported infidelity, @fleekynu sent a photo of a roach climbing into a car.
When this particular Twitter user sent the image it is unlikely they could have imagined how popular it could become. It has not only been used in the same way by many individuals in DMs and online, but it has spawned a number of imitators, as all the best memes do.
One of the interesting things about the roach getting into a car meme is how it is being talked about in the widest circles. The tool resource and review website, ToolTally, even picked up on the roach getting into a car meme and discussed how it engaged with its audience. Memes can help to grow audiences and create talking points.
Why is the cockroach getting into his car meme so popular?
There is no denying that the meme has become a trend and gone viral. One of the interesting points about the roach getting into a car meme is some of the questions it has sparked. More than one post has asked whether the photo is genuine or digitally altered.
Some of the most popular memes ever, according to The Independent, have included the world’s most famous figures. Faces such as Barack Obama, Christiano Ronaldo, and Kermit the Frog, have graced the most shared memes ever.
Political memes work well, as do ones that people can relate to. With photo editing software easily available and free online, anyone can alter a meme to suit their own needs, and that is what happened to the roach meme.
Simply, the roach getting into a car meme is an easy prank to play on friends and partners. Also, it is easily customizable, and this means that anyone can get in on the trend and be part of something that is currently online.
You can describe your experiences with a meme or show how you feel. They can be topical, or they can be short lived. The best ones can be used to improve the content or used in marketing too.
Are memes important to online content?
Apart from just being entertaining and putting a smile on a person’s face for a few moments, memes can be used in other ways.
Visitors to websites are said to be able to recall only 10% of the information they read just 3 days later. However, if visual content accompanies the text, 65% of the information will be retained.
Visual content also helps to improve engagement and reduce bounce rates. The average bounce rate for a web page is estimated to be as low as 10 or 20 seconds. Yet, when a video is included, this increases to 6 minutes on average.
Aside from marketing, you can improve your social media feed’s appearance with memes and visual content for fun. Visuals simply work better with audiences than content.
Summary
The roach getting into a car meme is still running, and will probably continue to do so for some time. When a trend hits the net, it sparks a desire for others to be a part of that. When Carter Wilkerson asked for chicken nuggets, he was overwhelmed with how millions of people wanted to see him succeed and be part of that same viral trend.
Next time you are tweeting to your friend, who knows, it could be you making the newest viral meme.
