Perhaps the most controversial thing about Apple’s new high-end phone, the iPhone X, is how much it costs. $999 is an unprecedented retail price for an Apple phone, and it’s naturally led to complaints from would-be customers. But if you don’t want it at that price, don’t buy it! Think of all the other things you could buy for less money, like 83 Blu-Ray copies of Shrek the Third!
Or the entire menu at Cracker Barrel:
or a trebuchet, the coolest and most stylish of the medieval siege engines:
or… a Glock, presumably to take out your frustration at the high cost of personal technology in 2017.
The most wholesome, most affordable option is “my friendship and support,” which costs absolutely nothing.
The meme is ridiculously easy to participate in: all you have to do is come up with a random item under $1,000. It’s also based on one of the most widely known commodities in the world, the iPhone. This ease of use and recognition is already working against the meme, though: it has become mainstream or “normie.”
A meme begins to decline as soon as it’s widespread on Facebook because overexposure can lead to audiences getting tired of the meme and no longer finding it funny. You can tell for sure that this is happening when corporate social media accounts start copying the joke.
In the case of the iPhone X meme, it’s already too late. It’s been on the front page of Reddit, and the restaurant chain Texas Roadhouse is tweeting about it:
iPhone X: $1,000
Entire Texas Roadhouse menu: $1052.64.
… and you can literally EAT our Apps.
— Texas Roadhouse (@texasroadhouse) September 20, 2017
What can you buy for the same price as an iPhone X? Not a funny meme. Those are priceless.