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Photo via Nathan Quach/Twitter

Teens are pretending to smoke weird stuff to ‘take the edge off’

Teen online humor is good.

 

Jay Hathaway

Internet Culture

Posted on Oct 21, 2016   Updated on May 25, 2021, 6:06 pm CDT

It’s hard online. It’s stressful. We’ve all got anxiety. Times like these, it’s understandable if you need a little something to help you relax and get through the day. We’re not here to judge. 

https://twitter.com/1975linette/status/786294820100726786

Just go ahead and smoke whatever you want. It’s better than the alternative: keeping The Edge on. 

Pocky? Sure. 

https://twitter.com/lotusplaza/status/784128847792836608

Banana? You do you. 

https://twitter.com/emmetbroaders/status/784755860409053184

Is that a Taki? Whatever, man. I ain’t even mad.

https://twitter.com/NathanQuach/status/785694299971133440

The origin of the “take the edge off” meme isn’t entirely clear, but @gossipgrill’s pretzel tweet from Oct. 5 was hugely popular and may have instigated the craze. 

https://twitter.com/gossipgriII/status/783880070230183936

Now teens everywhere are doing it: 

https://twitter.com/yaniexe/status/788927054351740928

https://twitter.com/QUADRATlC/status/788947834292797440

https://twitter.com/briskvacancy/status/785464659310706688

And it’s spread to popular meme spam accounts:

https://twitter.com/memeprovider/status/788484619268001792

It’s started to spawn variations and parodies:

https://twitter.com/DADLlB/status/789406585445490689

https://twitter.com/ughposts/status/789303449091440641

And, of course, someone did the anti-joke:

(Sorry, this embed was not found.)

The venting of stressed-out high schoolers, forced to grow into a world that adults have already ruined, is one of the richest veins of internet humor. Just ask all of Tumblr. 

This is a meme everyone needed. Just a little something to take the edge off.

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*First Published: Oct 21, 2016, 4:15 pm CDT