#YachtCocaineProstitutes & 4 Other Weird Twitter Trends
Twitter has seen its share of weird “trending topics,” as they call it, over the years, including the bizarre hashtag #YachtCocaineProstitutes, which has been a hot topic today. Here, now, is a look at five of the most recent bizarre topics to trend on the social media platform.
#YachtCocaineProstitutes
This hashtag, which as of this writing is #2 on Twitter’s list of trending topics with 32,500 retweets, is a bit of trolling aimed at California Congressman Devin Nunes, as TV personality Andy Lassner explains in a tweet.
On Monday night, Nunes confirmed that he had filed a $150 million lawsuit against various entities, including Twitter and a parody Twitter account, accusing them of defamation following a Sacramento Bee report that Nunes was connected to a fundraiser that allegedly included prostitutes, a yacht, and cocaine.
#StLouisStyle
The Midwestern city, like most American cities, has made some contributions to cuisine that are loved locally but elsewhere invoke head-scratching and even pearl-clutching. This was obvious in late March 2019 after a Twitter user announced that at least one St. Louis bakery will slice your bagels vertically if you ask. As reported at the time by The Inquisitr, this was regarded by bagel purists and gourmands everywhere as a crime against cuisine, and snarky users began trolling the city with “St. Louis-style” creations of their own.
Today I introduced my coworkers to the St Louis PBJ pic.twitter.com/yEkBusJx6G
— Haver (@HaverOfOpinions) March 27, 2019
#CheesedChallenge
For a few days in March 2019, people across the world were throwing slices of cheese at babies, filming it, and posting it on Twitter for no real reason other than because they can. As Eater reported at the time, the whole thing began when Michigan dad Charles Amara posted a video of himself throwing Kraft Singles at a baby, laughing gleefully when the slices stuck. Sure enough, it became a “thing,” to the point that some hyperbolic commentators equated the practice to child abuse. Like almost all social media trends, it was over almost as soon as it began, and babies everywhere were safe from the menace of having cheese thrown at them.
#yannylaurel
In May 2018, all anyone could talk about was whether or not a certain audio clip said the word “laurel” or “yanny.” Listen for yourself.
The source of the controversy, as far as anyone can tell, began when an Atlanta-area teen found the old audio clip and posted it on Instagram, according to this report on YouTube. It soon landed on Reddit, then Twitter, and the rest, as they say, is history. And by the way, the man who originally recorded the clip confirmed that he was saying “Laurel.”
#TheDress
Speaking of is-it-this-or-is-it-that controversies, the Yanny/Laurel kerfuffle was the audio equivalent of a visual controversy that hit Twitter in 2015. Water coolers and family dinner tables everywhere were the scenes of pitched battles over whether or not a dress in a photograph was black and blue or white and gold.
The answer to the question involves lighting, the viewer’s eye physiology, and psychology, among other factors. And indeed, the drastic dichotomy in how different viewers perceive what is essentially the same thing inspired peer-reviewed scientific papers by neurologists, as Wired reports.
Not for nothing, The Independent later revealed the dress in better lighting, confirming unambiguously and once-and-for-all that the dress is, and was, in fact, blue and black.
