mia all I wanna do meme

M.I.A. / YouTube

M.I.A.’s hit song ‘Paper Planes’ is now a Twitter meme

BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM.

 

Stacey Ritzen

Internet Culture

Posted on Jul 26, 2018   Updated on May 21, 2021, 10:08 am CDT

It’s been over a decade since British rapper M.I.A. released “Paper Planes,” the third single off her second studio album, Kala. The song became an immediate hit, landing in the top ten of six Billboard U.S. charts, thanks to its insanely catchy chorus in which M.I.A. sings “all I wanna do is” followed by the sound of four gunshots, a click, and a cash register opening.

The song continues to be popular today, with the video racking up over 137 million views on YouTube since 2009. As further evidence of the lasting popularity of “Paper Planes,” this week the song became a bona fide meme on Twitter.

It’s pretty easy to play along. All you need to do type “all I wanna do is,” add the additional sound effects in writing, and then offer a serious or irreverent conclusion–as you can see in the examples below.

https://twitter.com/NOTVIKING/status/1021576729049980929

https://twitter.com/_ches3/status/1021611905453096966

Katherine McPhee used the meme to joke about her television career track record. (R.I.P. Smash, 2012 – 2103)

https://twitter.com/katharinemcphee/status/1022198357161390082

The meme also intersected with the popular “bunny holding a sign” meme that’s still ubiquitous on Twitter these days.

https://twitter.com/DJYwrites/status/1021963374333112320

And finally, a public service announcement from writer Russ Fischer–because, as I mentioned earlier in the post–the song does indeed have four gunshots in it.

If “Paper Planes” hasn’t already become an earworm at this point, you can check out the original video, below:

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*First Published: Jul 26, 2018, 10:45 am CDT