Gmail's Twitter account ruins an already bad meme

Ft. Qualcomm, T-Mobile, and others

We know what red flags are. Everyone's been making spicy memes out of them. But when some brands do it, well, that should put up a special red flag to let everyone know that this meme is done.

If you're wondering why you've been seeing cringey comments followed by a ton of 🚩 emoji (technically named "triangular flag"), don't worry — we've been wondering, too. Know Your Meme reports that the format could've come out of TikTok where there's been plenty of discourse about spotting red flag behaviors in people and institutions. The genesis of the text-based meme isn't quite clear, but it looks like it picked up steam last month and kept its momentum going primarily on Twitter.

Of course, brands usually decide to get in on the action — typically late into a meme's shelf life — so they leave it to their underpaid social media staffer to think of something clever to get with the times and gain some clout.

Sometimes it works. Most of the time, it does not.

Maybe a break from our screens is what we truly need.

Thanks, T-Mo. Knew we could count on ya.

And Verizon lost the game, too.

Not enough cringe for ya? Try this last one on for size.

The whole juxtapositioning of having corporate entities tell you what to watch out for when most of the time you'd be watching for red flags on their part is honestly quite delicious. That said, there are ways of doing this right. Take Google Play's retweet of this post from Black Girl Gamers.

https:/twitter.com/blackgirlgamers/status/1448345985197953037

But yeah, this meme needs to raise the white flag now. For the sake of all of us.

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