So Lay

(Any resemblance to an iconic motion picture may be purely intentional)

A notification popped up on his screen. “Joy tagged you in a post.” V Roy smiled as he scrolled through the post about evergreen friendship. Joy was his best buddy and a fellow meme-enthusiast. They loved making hilarious memes together and dreamt of owning a meme page with thousands of followers one day. His trail of thoughts was interrupted by another notification. It was a message by some Mr Thaw Kuhr on his LinkedIn profile. It led to a video, which showed two jailed dacoits messing around with the Jailer, and their faces were morphed with Joy and Roy’s faces. Enraged at the audacity of the stranger, Roy zoom-called Joy. “Yeah, I got that one too. We should do something about this guy!” 

‘Do you think this is funny? Who the hell are you?’, Joy messaged Mr Kuhr. A meme popped up in reply. This wasn’t an ordinary opponent, he thought. Roy came up with an instant meme idea, and Joy posted it in reply. Mr Thaw Kuhr smiled with satisfaction. He finally got what he was searching for.

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“So, you are the owner of the famous Facebook page – Rum God?”, Joy was taken aback, “The page which regularly comes up with informative posts fighting fake news and has over fifteen thousand followers?” “Yes, I am the one. And I want you both to help me in fighting a battle. A battle which involves brains and memes.”, replied Mr Kuhr. “A Battle? Against whom?”, Roy narrowed his eyes suspiciously. “There is a social media cult group, led by the notorious spammer Gab Bear. He posts fake edited videos and copied memes on his Instagram and Facebook accounts to gain views and popularity. Some days back, he posted some misleading content on social media about making alcohol-based sanitizers at home. To stop its spread, I shared a doctor’s opinion about the hazards of this method, debunking his post. This enraged him, and he started spamming my page with harsh comments and offensive memes, which was taken up further by his followers. This tainted my reputation, and I lost a lot of followers because they did not want such nonsensical content on their feed. I thought of reporting this person’s account. But then I got to know that this guy had done similar things to many other accounts before. I want to teach him a lesson in front of all his followers! I want to defeat him through memes, and I want you to do that for me! In return, I assure you thousands of followers on the meme page that you both are planning to make.”, Mr Kuhr just made an offer, tough to refuse.

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“Why ‘So Lay’?- it is such an unusual name for a meme account”, Roy asked his co-admin. ”Well, it spreads the message of relaxation and chill! That is what we want our followers to do while we tickle their funny bones! Moreover, the name has a nice ring to it”, Joy replied excitedly. “Okay, if you say so,” Roy continued doubtfully, “We should think about how to fight this Gab guy soon.” Joy smiled positively, ”I have an idea! We will start a meme challenge through our page. The challenge would involve tagging a person with one meme and waiting for his retaliation with another meme. The meme war would continue until one of the challengers stops retaliating within an hour. We can defeat Gab through this challenge.” “This sounds amazing! And Mr Kuhr can help us in spreading this challenge through his account and his followers!”, Roy replied with a spark in his eyes.

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“Why can’t you help us? You just have to participate in this challenge once and spread it amongst your followers. You can’t even do that for us? And here we are, risking our entire reputation for your battle!”, Joy exclaimed angrily. “Seriously, we can’t do this without any support!”, Roy chimed in.” I am sorry. I cannot help you in this. This is your battle! All Yours!”, Mr Kuhr replied, lowering his head. “Are you too ashamed to show your support to us? If that’s so, I am sorry Mr Kuhr, we are not helping you anymore!”, yelled Joy grudgingly.

 “Nooo….! Wait…!Okay! Okay! I’ll tell you the real reason. The reason why I can’t participate in the challenge is..”, Mr Kuhr stammered grimly,” To save myself from all the humiliation after Gab’s spamming, I had to deactivate my Facebook and Instagram accounts!” “We will have to fight this war on our own, Joy, and that too soon. This vicious Gab Bear needs to be attacked today!”, declared Roy venomously as he scrolled through his Facebook news feed,” He has crossed all limits! He tagged my Bae Senty in a Dance Video challenge on Facebook just now!”

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 A wicked smile crawled on Gab’s face as he pictured the image of Senty dancing. But this enjoyment couldn’t last long. A provoking comment by ‘So Lay’ brought him back to reality. “Bae Senty ,don’t dance in front of these dogs! Dance challenge is for kids. Actual influencers engage in real meme wars!”- it read. Grinding his teeth in anger, Gab slammed his fist against the wall.  “Aye, Sam boy! How many people are behind this new page? , “ Gab questioned his favorite follower. “Two, Sir!” , Sam replied timidly. “Look at their audacity! These two novices need to be shown their rightful place! Tag them in the meme challenge! They will taste shameful defeat from my hands today!”, Gab grinned vengefully.

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After almost seven hours of incessant meme faceoffs and comebacks, the challenge intensified. But Gab was a no-match to the quick and witty meme replies thrown by So Lay. As the game proceeded to its eighth hour, Joy exhausted his daily internet usage limits, “ No, Roy! Don’t wait for me! There is no time to lose. Continue the game without me, and remember, we have to win the battle!” With moist eyes, Roy stood up to defend So Lay’s honour in this unfortunate hour and continued the battle.

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Rum God shared a meme by So Lay on its page with the caption: Do follow for some light-hearted comedy and a positive outlook to life!

Mr Kuhr was a happy man now. A few days ago, Gab lost a meme challenge against So Lay, when he couldn’t come up with a reply to their amazingly edited video parody of an English number. Humiliated by the fact that a newly formed meme page could defeat him, he kept a low profile for many days. Mr Kuhr took the opportunity to bring into light his fake posts and scandalous memes. Gab’s followers started unfollowing him, and within days, his page was reduced to a mere hundred followers and a bunch of hateful comments. 

And So Lay was now bustling with the likes, comments and shares of more than fifteen thousand followers.

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