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:
Instagram bot @elonmusksjet tracks Elon Musk’s jet and logged a quick visit here Sunday evening, likely checking in on the mysterious goings-on at xAI’s new supercomputer.
Not mysterious, however, were the details of the flight, according to the bot: 1,025 gallons of jet fuel used, at a cost of about $5,742, and 11 tons of CO2 emissions.
(H/t to u/phoebetoes on Reddit)
Last Lodge
Posted to Facebook by Chris McCoy
“Literally every freak in Memphis is at Black Lodge tonight,” wrote Flyer film and TV editor Chris McCoy of the venue’s final event Saturday.
Spicy
Posted to Facebook by Memphis Police Department
Memphis Police Department arrested a 15-year-old male last week on charges of vandalism between $2,500 and $10,000. The alleged “Spicy” tagger was prolific in the I-240/Poplar area. He even taunted the Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT), which had apparently covered his previous tags, with the message, “Thx 4 ur service TDOT,” and a heart.
A February Truth Social post by former president and convicted felon Donald Trump resurfaced last week. We’re not sure exactly why, but we thought you ought to see it.
Trump claimed people have said he looks like Elvis Presley for years, posted a photo of himself and Presley side by side, and asked his followers what they thought.
Live Cam
Posted on Earthcam by Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium
Over the weekend, Memphis Reddit users debated the only real question: Do you call the Young Avenue Deli “The Deli” or “Young Ave.”? Results were mixed with younger folks mostly opting for “Young Ave.” Older respondents and Cooper-Youngers largely preferred “The Deli.”
Longtime environmentalist Scott Banbury posted a video to Facebook this week showing “the un-permitted turbines currently running at Elon Musk’s xAI facility in Memphis, spewing low-level ozone-forming emissions into our air that is already out of attainment [of national air quality standards].”
Social Bikin’
Posted to Reddit by u/ChillinDylan901
The Memphis Social Bicycle Club meets every Thursday at 7 p.m. at Veterans Plaza in Overton Park, according to Reddit user ChillinDylan901. “The only important part is to make it to our destination before they run out of beer!” the poster said.
‘Insanely rampant’
Posted to YouTube by Versed
Video essayist Versed compared the Memphis and Nashville economies in a YouTube video in July. The GDP of the cities were both around $65 billion in 2000, he said. Nashville exploded to $136 billion in 2023 versus Memphis’ $69 billion that year. Memphis’ “insanely rampant” crime and a consolidated Nashville government were two reasons given for the difference.
He also mysteriously shows a shot of the Hennepin Avenue Bridge in Minneapolis and pronounces it “Appalakkian Mountains.” So … y’know.
We’ve seen a lot of photos of Sputnik over the years but maybe never one so dramatic as Danielle Lewis posted to the Memphis In Pictures, Places and People Facebook group last week.
Kinfolk
Posted to GoFundMe by Josh Clark
Josh Clark started a GoFundMe for Kinfolk restaurant last week after a water main busted and flooded their shop.
“They are gonna be out of business for a little bit so they won’t have any cash flow to come in and help cover employee cost,” Clark said. “In a city where all of our favorite restaurants are closing down, let’s show our support to our favorite spot.”
As of late last week, the GoFundMe had raised $1,380 of its $2,500 goal.
Damn
Posted to Facebook by The Damn Weather of Memphis
The Damn Weather of Memphis can’t stop messing with AI. He recently asked it to write a weather forecast for the city.
“Yo, listen up, cuh!” it began. “It’s finna be hot as hell out here, mane. On god, from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., it’s gon’ feel like 112 degrees. Not gonna lie, fam, it’s serious out here.”
Nextdoor user Roger Williams asked for name recommendations for the tricky-to-spot dog in the above photo. Some of the top names were “Pebbles,” “Camo,” “Waldo,” and “Rocky.”
Fly Mud Island
Posted to Facebook by Kenneth B Keim
Change has always been in the mix for Mud Island, as proven by a photo shared to the Memphis In Pictures, Places And People Facebook group last week.
As it enters a new phase with the Baron Von Opperbean immersive experience, it’s fun to remember the island was once home to an airstrip. It was used, largely, by business travelers who would land and take a pontoon ferryboat across Wolf River Harbor to Downtown destinations.
Mutants
Posted to Facebook by Memphis Memes 901
Memphis summertime headed back into familiar “excessive heat” territory this week. It also opened up the human buffet for our beloved mosquitos. Let the grousing commence.
