Sex is cool, many people agree, but is it the only pleasurable and satisfying thing in life? According to a wildly popular new Twitter meme, nah. Sex is cool, but have you tried broadening your life experience with other rewarding activities, like washing your dishes right after you use them?
yeah sex is cool but have you tried washing your dishes right after you use them so they never pile up in the sink???
— gay matter (@drumforge) November 17, 2017
This tweet from November seems to be the genesis of the “sex is cool but” trope. It’s a good, practical idea that definitely wouldn’t have gotten 200,000 likes if it hadn’t been awkwardly compared to sex. The joke is that you can be good at sex and dishes, but if you had to pick one … probably dishes?
The meme peaked in early December with some other practical and appealing alternatives to sex, like dismantling capitalism:
yeah sex is cool but have you ever fantasized about an infrastructure renewal program funded by the taxes of billionaires
— . (@jaboukie) December 5, 2017
Or taking a depression nap:
yeah sex is cool bro but have you have tried using sleep as a form of escapism from reality
— indie (@INDIEWASHERE) December 5, 2017
Or lounging for hours in a bathrobe:
https://twitter.com/yeetztweetz/status/938188083744399360
Or having fulfilling personal relationships:
https://twitter.com/lowkeylean/status/938851472938295297
Or going to the dog park:
https://twitter.com/crystalmeth___/status/938516815206125570
The meme can be used for anything you think is great, whether it’s sincere or ironic. The sincere side can be totally heartwarming, but on the ironic side, you’ll find some dark humor about suicide, depression, and other social dysfunctions.
Yeah sex is cool but have you ever tried taking a bath with your toaster while it’s plugged in
— Rio (@RyoFog) December 6, 2017
Yeah sex is cool but have you ever tried using sarcasm as a defense mechanism to cope with your inability to accurately express feelings to other human beings?
— Zacque (@zachl3pla) December 8, 2017
https://twitter.com/luhancbt/status/939220219079397377
The sex meme doesn’t even have to be about sex—it can just be about memes, calling back to past jokes or pop culture references and absorbing them into its formula:
yeah sex is cool but have you ever tried doing two format tweets in one?
INTERVIEWER: I meant questions about the job
— Rads (@_radsy) December 8, 2017
yeah sex is cool but have you ever had szechuan sauce? probably not cuz your IQ isn't high enough to be a Rick and Morty fan so maybe you should just stick with sex like every other moron that still thinks their very existence actually has any importance in this doomed dimension.
— Reverend Scott (@Reverend_Scott) December 8, 2017
yes sex is cool but have you ever heard of closing the goddamn door it’s much better to face these things with a sense of poise and rationality
— Dr. Bucky Isotope, Astrologist, IQ 188 (@BuckyIsotope) December 8, 2017
yeah sex is cool but have you ever loved somebody so much, it makes you cry. Have you ever needed something so bad, you can't sleep at night. Have you ever tried to find the words, but they don't come out right.
Have you ever, have you ever— Keith Oliver Lewis (@keitholewis) December 8, 2017
yeah sex is cool but have you ever eaten someone’s plums that were in the icebox and that they were probably saving for later
— Dr. Bucky Isotope, Astrologist, IQ 188 (@BuckyIsotope) December 7, 2017
https://twitter.com/jaxonmalcolm/status/937164291156926464
Yeah, this meme is cool but have you ever considered that it’s dying because it’s being co-opted by brands:
yeah sex is cool but have you ever taken advantage of trending memes to advertise your late night talk show to the cool kids on twitter dot com
— The Late Late Show with James Corden (@latelateshow) December 8, 2017
Bummer. What are we going to do now? Well, I hear sex is cool …