MEMES OF SUMMER
The bros are breaking up. The AI bros are glitching. The theatre kids are winning. From Musk vs. Trump to MrLean edits and this summer’s most unlikely viral hit. The early wave 🌊 is here — with more updates to come.
Monitoring the Situation
When the world catches fire, the internet does what it does best: it memes.
Since military operations resumed in mid-June, prompting global attention — the internet has been flooded with a new form of coping: monitoring the situation.
Repost from Marta Florio’s Instagram
The meme features everything from men staring out windows with arms crossed to cats perched on ledges, watching the world end. It’s rarely about action. Just passive observation.
The phrase itself isn’t new. It’s been floating around since at least 2017, but surged in popularity this year, especially after a now-iconic post in January featuring Jeff Bezos with the caption: “the masculine urge to monitor the situation.” From there, the format evolved rapidly — into workplace jokes, geopolitical commentary, and absurdist animal memes.
A culture of livestreamed wars, real-time border crises, and breaking news every five minutes. No wonder we turn the act of watching into a ritual. Or an excuse. Or a meme.
The format often plays with gender — the “masculine urge” to monitor, never to emote. It’s a way of being present without really engaging. We’re monitoring the situation, people say. And maybe they mean: we have no idea what to do.
It’s not inherently far-right. But it is a mirror. A reflection of a digital culture that tracks every global flashpoint — not to act, but to doomscroll. It’s exhaustion disguised as vigilance.
And we’re still monitoring.
BRO(KE UP) SUMMER
In late May, Elon Musk quietly exited Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (yes, D.O.G.E.) and then not-so-quietly blew everything up.
By early June, Musk and Trump were locked in a full-scale meme feud. Musk called Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” a “pork-filled abomination.” Trump said Musk “went CRAZY” after losing his EV mandate. Musk clapped back. Trump clapped harder. And then Musk dropped the line that pushed the internet into chaos. A breakup so loud, everyone logged in to watch. As the back-and-forth between Trump and Musk intensified, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez joined the broader conversation by quoting a well-known meme:
THE GIRLS ARE FIGHTING
What's The Origin Of 'The Girls Are Fighting' Meme? The Azealia Banks Meme Quoted by AOC Explained KYM
During a June 5 interview with Spectrum News 1, when asked about the Musk–Trump feud, she responded with a dry laugh:
“Oh man, the girls are fighting, aren’t they.” The clip from Sprectrum News was widely shared, discussed, and remixed. It added to the meme-layering already in motion and demonstrated how older meme formats continue to be reactivated in new political contexts. Originally yelled by Azealia Banks in a bunny filter on Instagram Live in 2018 — now quoted by AOC on the House floor (well, almost).
The line comes from Banks reacting (with full drama) to the Cardi B vs. Nicki Minaj Fashion Week incident, and has since become the internet’s go-to reaction to high-profile beef.
BRAINROT CURE: AMATEUR THEATER
May's surprise hit: one line, one accent, one standing ovation in a school auditorium. “A barbershop haircut that costs a quarta” .
A clip from an amateur production of Newsies found new life in May, when the line “a barbershop haircut that costs a quarta” was shared and reenacted across TikTok and X. The audience erupts in the clip, and the delivery — a little too loud, a little too much — struck a perfect brainrot relief.
It’s amateur theater energy in its rawest form. The meme quickly became a collective reference point — as a kind of low-stakes internet affection.
MRLEAN: AI-CORE POST-IRONY
In early June, the internet gave MrBeast a makeover he didn’t ask for — and couldn’t stop. The result? MrLean: an AI- and Photoshop-driven meme that placed his face into a highly curated aesthetic universe. Goatee, designer tracksuit, cash fanned out in hand — a look far removed from his clean-cut philanthropist brand.
The meme took off as part-joke, part-commentary. Fans and posters began remixing, fancamming, and stylizing MrBeast into endless “MrLean” variants, pushing the character to near-mythic meme status. MrBeast posted his own version — posing with a cash spread on a private jet: full-circle irony collapse.
But beneath the fun, MrLean also functioned as a subtle power critique - as memes often do. The meme pokes fun at the hyper-optimized "bro-preneur" archetype: always positive, always branded, always algorithmically correct. MrBeast became a canvas for a more chaotic masculinity — aesthetic and far from corporate-bro-friendly. It also spotlighted the weird flattening effect of AI aesthetics (also an invention of the bro-preneur) : how faces, identities, and brands can now be endlessly recontextualized — and how AI often ends up generating more of the same. It wasn’t just about MrBeast.
By the time he posted his own version (on a jet, with cash), the meme had already done its job: turning YouTube’s most polished success story into a glitchy AI remix. Not a takedown, not exactly parody — just the internet playing with what happens when the brand gets too clean.
GOODNIGHT BRO
Started as a simple prank: one man calls another just to say “goodnight” and “sweet dreams.” The reactions — confusion, laughter, sometimes a soft “you too, bro” — hit a nerve.
By late May, the trend exploded on TikTok. Not parody, not cringe — just surprisingly sincere. Some called it “emotional bait,” others a glimpse of what male friendship could be if it dropped the performance.
The trend hit peak cinema when Robert De Niro joined in. In a video captured near both men, De Niro calls Martin Scorsese to say goodnight
A soft meme moment in a loud summer.