An opinion writer in the New York Times penned a piece with a moving message about post-pandemic life. “You Can Be a Different Person After the Pandemic,” the headline read, with the sub-headline telling readers that “personalities are not set in stone” and are changeable like sand dunes.
The internet took that article and did what the internet does: It made jokes.
Basically, people took the headline and paired it with pop culture references about transformation. For instance, here was my contribution to the meme using The Office’s Date Mike, which was the try-hard cool (but not really cool) version of Michael Scott.
Though the Times piece itself published about a week ago, the meme really took off on Monday morning as tons of folks posted memes about life after the pandemic. Here are a few of our favorites.
You Can Be A Different Person After The Pandemic Because Living Through This Experience Has Irreparably Damaged You
— Kath Barbadoro (@kathbarbadoro) April 12, 2021
“You can be a different person after quarantine” I am not a person I am an ogre
— horse deals (@heymermaid) April 12, 2021
And finally, here’s a personal favorite of mine, which will not make sense if you don’t watch What We Do in the Shadows but if you do watch that show it is simply perfect.
With vaccines ramping up across the U.S., it seems possible some version of a post-pandemic life could be around the corner. So get to work on inventing that new personality now. And if you happen to see a guy in Brooklyn in Crocs and a Hawaiian shirt this summer, wave hello. That’s the new me.