therapist

Shutterstock/Twitter user @Kev__odonnell (Licensed)

Your therapist probably wouldn’t approve of this meme

The perfect meme to turn existential despair into retweets.

 

Siobhan Ball

Internet Culture

Posted on Jul 16, 2019   Updated on May 20, 2021, 8:37 am CDT

Therapy sessions have always provided lots of fodder for self-deprecating memes. But now a new format is taking over Twitter, and it’s all about disappointing your therapist.

The meme format is easy to replicate. The therapist asks you why you feel a certain way, you give a bad answer, and the therapist says “no”.

https://twitter.com/TechnicallyRon/status/1137838460952297475

People have mixed the format with other memes, such as the line from a classic Vine: “I’m a bad bitch, you can’t kill me”.

And “you hate to see it“.

https://twitter.com/Kev__odonnell/status/1150898607526219778

And Let’s Go, Lesbians.

https://twitter.com/lemmepetyourdog/status/1150604836104265729

They’ve even used it to promote bands.

https://twitter.com/silentcourtney/status/1146510383835992064

Naturally, the meme started to become absurd…

https://twitter.com/silentcourtney/status/1146529830827114497

https://twitter.com/lindsritch/status/1150911888009715714

https://twitter.com/unrealAnnaAdams/status/1150908453751263232

…and people started making jokes about wanting to die.

https://twitter.com/NhilseMariel/status/1148738520095346695

Basically, the therapist meme is a perfect outlet for the hyperbolized performances of despair that are a common coping mechanism now, along with minor griping and complaints about the difficulty of opening up to a therapist.

https://twitter.com/MrModestMan/status/1147344088179494912

https://twitter.com/smithkm217/status/1148724780591439872

https://twitter.com/Katlyn_Sucks/status/1146481971746336773

“It be like that sometimes” was a popular response in this meme.

https://twitter.com/soleiltaehyung/status/1147315430857555989

As was “mood“.

https://twitter.com/_the_scourged/status/1146862925040291840

https://twitter.com/Kxleidxscxpx/status/1147251743555837952

It got political.

https://twitter.com/noitsgary/status/1150910154818367488

https://twitter.com/wlwamerica/status/1150891566132846594

This one mashes up a lot of recent memes.

Now that the meme has broken the fourth wall, does it mean that it’s over?

Perhaps it just means that you should remember to go to your therapist IRL.

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*First Published: Jul 16, 2019, 9:06 am CDT