Applejack is a character in the new My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic series who likes to wear a brown stetson hat.
She also has a signature catchphrase: What in tarnation?
That’s about all anyone would ever need to know for the longest time until, one day last month, a Tumblr user slapped the same hat on a Shiba Inu and asked the same question.
It’s bemused doge channeling My Little Pony.
The meme picked up steam on Twitter, but it was only in recent days that it morphed into something truly wonderful. It’s a perfect meme template: So many things rhyme with the suffix “-ation,” and almost everything looks stupid when you slap an unnecessary cowboy hat on it.
Like such:
https://twitter.com/ViraIMemes/status/835352751966158848
But it also works for celebrities already wearing cowboy hats.
WOT IN STEALING THE DECLARATION pic.twitter.com/6dTNwsI3ib
— bigassblueshark (@bigassblueshark) February 27, 2017
https://twitter.com/edjiggy/status/835375044142325763
https://twitter.com/saraabeann/status/834987474648621056
OK, maybe Patrick Henry isn’t a celebrity but whatever. It works for all American legends.
https://twitter.com/saraabeann/status/834991053832781825
Inanimate objects work great with this.
wot in MLA Citation pic.twitter.com/4bIFJW07T5
— Lucas Sheriff (@LucasSheriff) February 25, 2017
https://twitter.com/imcolenewton/status/834466596089311232
https://twitter.com/alextre21/status/835194849989181440
https://twitter.com/LaziestCanine/status/835918764109520896
https://twitter.com/AudgeGibb/status/833532024891777025
It got so good that a genius started the @WotInTarnation account to round up the best. And they are all so good.
Now you know what in tarnation ‘wot in tarnation’ is.