The MEMernet was dominated late last week with the news that chain restaurant Houston’s closed its longtime Memphis location, citing staffing and safety challenges.
Reactions online followed a familiar rhythm — shock at the news, sadness over the dishes that will be missed, remembrance of good times had at the chain restaurant, a wave of pffffftt about safety concerns in one of the safest parts of town, a review of all the other restaurants in the area that are thriving, undertones of racism in the motivation to close, context on how the restaurant never engaged with the Memphis community, news that a local wanted to step in to reopen the place, and, finally, a meme showing Houston’s could reopen as a Jack Pirtle’s Chicken.
Haunted Hepburn
Posted to Facebook Marketplace
Someone bought some Halloween just for Christmas. A recently purchased poster ($50) of Audrey Hepburn was described as “haunted” in a Facebook Marketplace post from Collierville. The poster said whatever spirit was attached to the poster was “escalating” things by touching them and even leaving red marks.
UFO on Sam Cooper?
Posted to X by @the_paranormal_chic
A video posted to X by Myra Moore The Paranormal Chic apparently showed a UFO transported through Memphis last weekend on a flatbed trailer, driving down Sam Cooper Boulevard.
Wouldn’t it be cool to drive around Memphis in a video game? That’s just what Cory Owens has been working to do. His MemphisMETAs project is a “Digital Twin” of the city. Driving and walking around the virtual model is just the beginning. Owens imagines users buying virtual properties, hosting virtual events, and more.
Redbirds Update
Posted to Facebook by Memphis Redbirds
Turns out the “something big” teased by the Memphis Redbirds on Facebook last week was, indeed, an exhibition match with the St. Louis Cardinals in March.
Moneybagg
Posted to YouTube by @saydattv
A new YouTube Short from @saydattv shows “Moneybagg Yo feeding the streets of Memphis.” Moneybagg played a sold-out show at FedExForum last weekend on Rod Wave’s Last Lap tour. The show included a surprise appearance by GloRilla.
The Memphis Redbirds teased on Facebook last weekend that “something big is coming.” The post’s image had big, vague shadows cast on the field. Guesses in the comments included a Cardinals game here in March, Deck the Diamond, aliens, price increases, a winning season, and more.
Board to Beers
Posted to GoFundMe by board to Beers
The MEMernet — like the internet everywhere — got a little tense last week. Board game bar Board to Beers launched a GoFundMe to move into a new space in Poplar Plaza. The owners said three air-conditioning units ($10,000 each, the owners said) have been stolen and replaced by them at their Chickasaw Crossing location.
Some Memphis subreddit users blasted the move, like u/memphisthrowaway9876 who said, “Make more money or realize your business model isn’t working out.” On Facebook, owners cast shame on “hateful” comments and asked, “What have you done for your city?”
‘Slideshow’
YouTube by SRT JD
Meet the folks who leave those tire tracks all over the city in a YouTube video called “I WENT TO THE MOST DANGEROUS SLIDESHOW IN MEMPHIS!” by YouTuber SRT JD.
Jada Renee’s now-deleted post about Huey’s on a first date tipped off what was a whole week of debate about the restaurant and first dates in Memphis. See this story by Kailynn Johnson for all the details.
Posted to Facebook by Huey’s
Huey’s owned it all with a great and subtle response, BTW.
Abandoned
Posted to YouTube by Mayday.Aerial
Click yourself over to YouTube to watch some amazing drone footage of the abandoned Memphis International Raceway. The race track closed in 2022 amid rumors of a land purchase for a new warehouse. But Mayday.Aerial’s video from last week shows that little has been done on the site, aside from vandalism.
Oak Court
Posted to Reddit by u/etherian1
Memphis Reddit user u/etherian1 alerted the community to “that one door at Oak Court that leads to a secret courtyard paradise” with a video that was just way more amazing than it needed to be.
Go find Reggie Corker’s amazing drone Reel of Downtown Memphis and Tom Lee Park. Perfect for a little MEMernet zen and a bit of perspective on our city.
Taraoke?
Posted to Facebook by Barbie’s Bar
Barbie’s Bar was slated to host Memphis’ first-ever Taraoke event this week, blending karaoke and tarot readings.
“Do you like to sing?” asks the event page. “Do you identify as your zodiac sign? Free karaoke and tarot. The zodiac team that does best will win prizes.” The events are set for Wednesdays in October.
Reddit Round-Up
Posted to Reddit by u/auralcavalcade
Friendly Redditors named an imaginary Memphis Major League Baseball team (Memphis Junts, and Manes, for example), recommended Acre as a wedding venue, looked to open a chapter of a lock picking group, and sought help seasoning a wok, re-homing a kitten, and sourcing two-liter bottles of Diet Sundrop. They also reimagined the Pyramid as a huge mech fighter (see above).
Federal law says churches could lose their tax-exempt status if they preach politics from the pulpit. That didn’t stop Alton R. Williams from unleashing a sermon called “Seeing the Election Through God’s Eyes” last week.
In it, Williams painted Kamala Harris (and mispronounced her first name like Trump does) as a socialist, said the government is coming for people’s guns, that one political party (wink, wink) is letting immigrants in (including from the Middle East, which is “nothing but terrorists”), that “they” are setting the stage for a race war between Black and brown people, with abortion “they’ll kill a baby in a minute,” and just so much more.
Maybe he mentioned Donald Trump over the hour-long sermon. We just couldn’t hang around that long to find out. But the “Why Trump?” section of the church’s website will tell you all you need to know.
Any cops out there enforcing the Johnson Amendment?
MonoNeon Gold
Posted to Facebook by Mononeon
MonoNeon gave Trump his unique treatment a couple of weeks ago and it’s simply amazing. The Memphis musician overdubs viral video clips with his bass. For example, Trump’s debate screed about immigrants eating pets transforms into a funky R&B thing with soaring background vocals.
James Dukes (IMAKEMADBEATS) spoke the truth last week after threats shut down several Memphis-area schools.
“Sending our kids to school should not be like this,” Dukes said on Facebook.
Never Forget
Originally posted to Twitter by Ryan Poe/Reposted to Facebook by Myrlon Lowery
The MEMernet remembered that 15 years ago, then-acting Memphis Mayor Myron Lowery fist-bumped the Dalai Lama and said, “Hello, Dalai!”
Doughty/Duck Dunn
Posted to Facebook by Mike Doughy
Memphis transplant Mike Doughty reunited with his band Soul Coughing recently for a tour. He found a little Memphis backstage in California.
“Thank you to The Fillmore in [San Francisco] for providing Soul Coughing, as per the backstage rider, an original painting of Donald ‘Duck’ Dunn,” Doughty wrote on Facebook.
We have a video podcast! Wait. Does that make it just a talk show? Either way, we’ve been working on a new weekly … thing. It’s not polished up yet but head over to our YouTube channel for an early look.
Weird Elon
Posted to YouTube my Elon Musk
Memphis businessman Elon Musk tweeted something just so weird last week, earning him millions of ughs and boos from every corner of the internet.
Underground, indie singer/songwriter Taylor Swift endorsed Kamala Harris for president with a picture of her cat (iykyk). This prompted Memphis businessman Elon Musk to tweet, “Fine Taylor … you win … I will give you a child and guard your cats with my life.”
Propers
Posted to Reddit by u/AlfofMelmac
Reddit user AlfofMelmac gave propers where they were due last week with a post titled, “Good job, MLGW!” The remnants of Hurricane Francine blustered through Memphis last week and the Redditor was “pleasantly surprised to see that there weren’t a whole lot of lights out on my commute, and not a ton of outages compared to prior big storms!”
“Did you get engaged at Shelby Farms outside of the FedEx Event Center last night? Congrats! I got pictures,” said Reddit user u/ChantalChante over the weekend. “In case you need a photo of your friend taking a photo of the photographer getting a photo …”
Got ’Em
Posted to X by NLE Choppa
Memphis rapper NLE Choppa stirred up the MEMernet on X last week.
He posted, “I’m coming out …,” on Thursday, and on Friday posted, “…with [a] new song, a new project this month, and Black Duck Boots. Y’all ain’t let me finish …”
Driving out
Posted to Facebook by Memphis Memes 901
Does it get any more Memphis than a MATA bus with drive-out tags?
Let’s have a look back at some huge (and hilarious) MEMernet anniversaries.
Posted to Facebook by WMC-TV
“Saucy Situation”
The MEMernet was obsessed this time two years ago with a truck accident that spilled enough Bertolli alfredo sauce to temporarily close I-55.
Coverage quotes from FOX13’s Kate Bieri went viral, including one used in a tweet from The New York Times that read: “Unfortunately this is Memphis, and we had some pretty intense sun beating down on that alfredo sauce, and also humidity. It was just not a great recipe for a highway full of alfredo sauce.”
#notmyjob
Posted to Facebook by Richie Esquivel
Richie Esquivel’s sad/hilarious Facebook post went around the world this time last year, picked up by WMC-TV, The Guardian, and The New York Post.
His photo showed a dead raccoon painted over by a road crew laying new traffic stripes along Getwell. It raises so many questions, but one thing was clear to Esquivel. It was “#notmyjob,” he wrote. “Memphis, Tennessee, baby. But Getwell Road looked real nice, tho.”
Neverending #buttholegate
Posted to Facebook by Imagine Butthole Cafe
The Imagine Butthole Cafe Facebook page always remembers.
The scandal was born seven years ago last month and internet scientists have yet to calculate the cumulative hours sunk into the hilarious, Memphis-only rabbit hole. Even researching this brief post, I was sucked into it.
But the wild story and the reaction to it went all over the world (and that’s not hyperbole). Here are some stories from Eater and Vice.
Susan Ellis, our food writer and managing editor at the time, listed ButtholeGate as one of the top food scandals in Memphis.
In the Best of Memphis issue of 2017, I picked ButholeGate as the year’s “Best Butthole Buzz.”
“The only butthole-related scandal that mattered this year was ButtholeGate, of course. This mighty beast of social-media hilarity and hurt feelings rose in July from a Google review (yes, a Google review) of Imagine Vegan Cafe in Cooper-Young. ButtholeGate paralyzed Memphis Facebook and Twitter for nearly two days, and the story finally spread as far as The Washington Post (yes, that Washington Post). Before it was all over, the humor harvest yielded “Butthole McYodelTown,” a puckered logo for “Hole Foods Memphis,” and #buttholesoutforchelsea. — TS”
ButtholegGate (SEE?! I can’t even stop writing about the thing now!) surged again on Reddit around its anniversary last month with some curious folks just wanting to know what the heck was going on. Delicious hilarity ensued. Check it out:
