If you know anything about me or my family, you know that we have spent quite a bit of time over the last couple of years thinking about/talking about Willy Wonka.
We are wonkish about Wonka!
Paul has played the lead role in the musical “Willy Wonka” twice. He did it most recently, in December, and much earlier when he was in eighth grade. We know the story. We know the songs.
We even chuckled when Holly and Paul shared with us the Wonka mash-up - Wonka’s Rage - (“Good Day Sir!”).
Imagine my surprise when I logged into my Twitter account recently and found suggestion to follow a person called “Condescending Wonka.”
Holly had recently told me about the concept of internet meme. She’s really been getting into them. In short, as I understand it, a meme is a picture of a person and it includes some condescending or sarcastic phrase. According to dictionary.com, it is a cultural item that is transmitted by repetition in a manner analogous to the biological transmission of genes.
Among the college-aged set, they are quite fashionable. One night she showed me a number of her favorite memes. Many of them feature the same ‘theme’ or ‘concept.’ For example, many of them spotlight an uninformed but extremely earnest freshman. Another series features ‘The Most Interesting Man in the World’ (the advertising icon for Dos Equis beer) and they start off with “I don’t usually ____ but when I do, I ___.”
You get the idea.
At Holly’s school, there are many UTK-centered memes that highlight some campus reference, some ongoing Vol-related fad or feature a campus celebrity (administrator, athlete, coach, etc.).
Another category is “Condescending Wonka,” and that brings me back to the Twitter reference. The Wonka WE all know and love is a prolific purveyor of sweets. But Condescending Wonka is prolific when it comes to tweets!
The Condescending Wonka icon pictures the Gene Wilder-version of Wonka (I’m told it was from the “Everlasting Gobstopper” scene). He is smiling and leaning his face on his hand (much like you’d prop your head up when you’re tired).
But THIS character doesn’t look sleepy; he looks creepy!
Since I started ‘following’ Condescending Wonka, I’ve been receiving his tweets rather frequently. Many of them are sarcastic; a lot of them are downright funny.
Here are some sample Willy Wonka tweets:
From Tuesday night:
Oh, you have full body tattoos? That will look great when you go to get a job.
From Tuesday afternoon:
You and your boyfriend broke up? Please post some more Adele lyrics as your Facebook status.
And from earlier today:
Oh, You have a 60” 3-D TV? That’s nice. I invented Wonka-vision.
Now, I will admit…some of his tweets are a little rough. And, who knows, I may not follow him very long. But for right now, I am enjoying the ascerbic humor.
It definitely is something a topic Holly and I have enjoyed sharing.
This Wonka, though, is not as jovial as the one I know. And whereas he was somewhat condescending to Veruca and her pop, it’s just not the same.
JG
(Source: Know Your Meme)
Originally posted 3/28/2012
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