This is the sheriff of not countenancing our buffoonery.
The Twitter community has been having quite the week. When they weren’t going starkers over Donald Trump Jr.’s emails or Amazon Prime Day or fancy sandwiches and us plebes who can’t understand them, they were assembling a virtual army of new sheriffs in town. The first joke started long before the meme took off; back on June 7th, comedian and Filmdrunk Frotcast guest Brandon Wardell tweeted some cryptic emoji art:
⠀ ⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ 🤠
💯💯💯
💯 💯 💯
👇🏽 💯💯 👇🏽
💯 💯
💯 💯
👢 👢
howdy. im the sheriff of suckin u off. im gon suck u off— Brandon Wardell (@BRANDONWARDELL) June 8, 2017
The absurdist joke paid off a few weeks later with this borderline-safe for work tweet.
It could have easily (happily?) ended there, but never underestimate how much people love emoji. The sheriff meme took off in the past week, with this viral tweet from last Friday being my introduction to the meme:
https://twitter.com/chacketttt/status/883421870262976512
Even corporations identified the opportunity to interface with millennials in this fast-paced internet economy.
⠀ ⠀ ⠀ 🤠
🍗🍗🍗
🍔 🍔 🍔
👇 🍦🍦 👇
🍿 🍿
🍩 🍩
👢 👢Howdy, I'm the sheriff of vacation eatin' and calories don't count.
— Universal Orlando Resort (@UniversalORL) July 10, 2017
⠀ ⠀ 🤠
🥖🍝🥖
🍝 🥖 🍝
👇🏽 🍝🍝 👇🏽
🥖🥖
🍝 🍝
👢 👢Howdy. I'm the sheriff of carbs. You can have all the carbs.
— Olive Garden (@olivegarden) July 11, 2017
⠀ ⠀ 🤠
🌛🌛🌛
🌛🌛🌛
👇🏽 🌛🌛 👇🏽
🌛
🌛
👢Howdy I'm the sheriff of MoonPies & this is how Twitter works in 2017. Also, I ate my own leg
— MoonPie (@MoonPie) July 12, 2017
Other sheriffs came along to comment about emoji.
https://twitter.com/DOGGEAUX/status/883297522269143040
https://twitter.com/bitcoin_desu/status/885030236928299014
And more sheriffs soon followed:
⠀ ⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ 🤠
🍚🍚🍚
🍚🍚🍚🍚
👇🏽 🍚🍚 👇🏽
🍚 🍚
👢 👢
howdy. im the sheriff of unemployment. rice is really affordable— darcie (@333333333433333) July 11, 2017
https://twitter.com/sadvil/status/884466773311008768
https://twitter.com/keisertroll/status/884963804769112064
This sheriff has clearly tapped my phone.
⠀ ⠀ ⠀ 🤠
🆗🆗🆗
🆗🆗🆗🆗
👇🏽 🆗🆗 👇🏽
🆗 🆗
🆗 🆗
👢 👢
Howdy! I'm the sheriff of phone calls with your mom— Willem (@jil_slander) July 11, 2017
One sheriff came along to remind people who started the joke:
https://twitter.com/caritadepincel/status/884947635416596480
And at least one person brought up GamerGate, which we’re almost tempted to write as “GamerG*te” just so psychos searching the term on Google won’t spout hot garbage in the comments.
⠀ ⠀ ⠀ 🤠
🎮🎮🎮
🎮 🎮 🎮
👇 🎮🎮 👇
🎮 🎮
🎮 🎮
👢 👢howdy im the sheriff of video game opinions
no fun allowed— Matt Mannheimer (@MattMannheimer) July 12, 2017
Some of the tweets referenced other fads of the day among Twitter addicts:
https://twitter.com/iboudreau/status/884772209721475072
And other tweets were also meta-jokes for fellow Twitter users:
i'm the sheriff of having an android
⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ ☐
☐☐☐
☐ ☐ ☐
☐ ☐☐☐ ☐
☐ ☐
☐ ☐
☐ ☐— Melanie Bracewell (@meladoodle) July 11, 2017
https://twitter.com/Arpwel/status/884466771788541952
⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ 🤠
🍷🍷🍷🍷🍷
🍷 🍷 🍷
👇🏽 🍷🍷 👇🏽
🍷 🍷
🍷 🍷
👢 👢
Howdy. I'm the sheriff of every mom meme on Facebook— Tommytoughstuff (@Tommytoughstuff) July 10, 2017
And it kept getting even more meta from there:
https://twitter.com/jimpjorps/status/884174756177641472
howdy, im the sheriff of thinkpieces about the sheriff meme. postmodernity is hell and i beg for god to destroy this world every day pic.twitter.com/tk5kFvFCTi
— 👼🏼JK Rowling 4: Spree killer phobia is SWERFism (@maryhailer) July 11, 2017
Well, this got dark.
(A tip of the sheriff’s hat to Pedestrian TV for a few of these.)