“Roses are red / violets are blue,” probably the most famous and basic opening in all of poetry, is a perfect fit for Twitter. It clocks in at far fewer than 140 characters and is formulaic enough to subvert for laughs.
Weird Twitter went through a fruitful “roses are red” phase back in early 2015, but twisting a rhyme that dates back to the 16th century isn’t exactly an internet meme. A meme, yes, but not one particular to the internet and social media.
A more recent mutation, though, is possible only in the contemporary garbage heap of online. Check it: A variation of “roses are red / violets are blue” is followed a screengrab of a headline or a YouTube video title that completes the rhyme and serves as the punchline.
The best recent example is this reaction to Jerry Seinfeld’s good news that he might make a sequel to Bee Movie (which is a meme in its own right):
https://twitter.com/veryhiggins/status/759923103950524416
But the trend has been building for some time, and seems to be reaching a peak:
https://twitter.com/frozenIakes/status/762685153290444800
Roses are red, violets are blue pic.twitter.com/l1DTA1T4Md
— elliot (@_elliot_c) July 30, 2016
Roses are red
— soupz :) (@soupzjack) July 30, 2016
Violets are blue pic.twitter.com/jLI6vcJYjX
Roses are red
— Harry Robinson (@RobboHarry) August 8, 2016
Violets are good pic.twitter.com/mScb1OJf9y
https://twitter.com/TheLadBible/status/758587882055401476
The rise of Roses Are Red #content has been aided by an account, launched in August, called No Chill Poetry. It’s entirely dedicated to the format.
https://twitter.com/nochillpoetry/status/760235118883725312
https://twitter.com/nochillpoetry/status/760231689645879296
https://twitter.com/nochillpoetry/status/762686280803254272
https://twitter.com/nochillpoetry/status/762742834801827841
https://twitter.com/nochillpoetry/status/761667624010911744
https://twitter.com/nochillpoetry/status/760485555289395200
Prominent Twitter botmaker Darius Kazemi observed this joke template reaching critical mass this week and realized it doesn’t take a human to fill it in. His new @rosesareredbot writes poems and finds headlines to cap them off. The results are often funnier than what a human would come up with:
roses are red
— Roses Are Red (@RosesAreRedBot) August 8, 2016
proximal goat
There’s No Such Thing As A Protest Votehttps://t.co/wceP7X1MYz
roses are red
— Roses Are Red (@RosesAreRedBot) August 8, 2016
you are unwise
Clinton’s Fibs vs. Trump’s Huge Lieshttps://t.co/lxhW1n97Jm
roses are red
— Roses Are Red (@RosesAreRedBot) August 6, 2016
some violets climb
Black Activists Don’t Ignore Crimehttps://t.co/NoaU5DhtUx
But the bot will be hard pressed to write anything funnier than its Twitter bio: “roses are red / violets are blue / computers can tell this kind of joke too.”
Roses are red / violets are blue / that’s the deal with this meme / that is popular online.
