Memes showing cakes have taken the local online community by storm after Filipinos started injecting it in their Twitter posts.
The memes are not limited to pictures, GIFs and videos. They also include phrases like “Everything is just a cake” and “Am I a cake?”
One of the most viral memes features a scene of the Filipino movie “Minsan Lang Kita Iibigin” where Terry (Maricel Soriano) stabs Melissa (Zsa-Zsa Padilla) after finding out she has fallen in love with her husband Dave (Gabby Concepcion).
“Terry, siniguro na hindi cake si Melissa,” a Twitter user wrote as he shared a stabbing scene between the female characters.
Terry, siniguro na hindi cake si Melissa pic.twitter.com/Nj8WG2f7PD
— leif (@leifyyy) July 13, 2020
Black Sheep, a studio under ABS-CBN Films, also joined the trend and used it to promote its Filipino Boys’ Love series “Hello Stranger” starring Tony Labrusca and JC Alcantara.
“Hello stranger episode 4 is cake,” its social media account said.
Online job portal Jobstreet Philippines, meanwhile, shared the very first video that made all of the cake memes possible and tweeted, “Can Monday be cake too?”
A physician shared a GIF of “Minsan Lang Kita Iibigin” where Terry suddenly stabs Melissa when the latter touches her shoulder.
It was his response to a news item that reported about Health Secretary Francisco Duque III‘s remarks that the country has “successfully flattened the curve since April,” which he later on took back.
RELATED: #DuqueResign calls revived after claim on flattened curve
“Pag cake ba si Duque ang tawag DuCake?” the physician asked in jest.
Pag cake ba si Duque ang tawag DuCake? https://t.co/w4vQJ9IZdH pic.twitter.com/faBITiaQoA
— Lui MD ⚕#MassTestingNow #JunkTerrorLaw (@luimandapat) July 15, 2020
Screenwriter Anj Pessumal also shared her thoughts about the cake memes that have since dominated the Internet.
“‘Everything is cake’ is the 2020 meme we never thought we needed,” she tweeted.
The cake meme has its origins in a compilation video shared by BuzzFeed Tasty which featured clips of a variety of cakes from the Instagram account of Turkish baker @redrosecake_tubageckil.
“These are all cakes,” Tasty tweeted.
The video opened with what appeared to be a red Crocs sandal that turned out to be a hyperrealistic cake when a knife went through it.
These Are All Cakes pic.twitter.com/ejArkJHaid
— Tasty (@tasty) July 8, 2020
Why cakes, of all things?
The New York Times’ Taylor Lorenz, a technology reporter covering internet culture, reported that cake videos “sit at the perfect nexus of ‘satisfying’ and ‘gotcha’ content.”
“Watching a sharp knife slice cleanly through what appears to be an everyday object is surprising and somehow deeply gratifying,” she wrote.
Lorenz said that Don Caldwell, editor of the Know Your Meme website, explained that the videos gain traction because they are “generic enough to appeal to a broad audience and don’t carry a particular political view, agenda or message,” she writes.
“They can provoke strong reactions (shock, surprise, disgust, horror) but the innocuous subject matter easily leads the viewer back to humor. Plus, cake jokes are easy to make in any online format,” Lorenz added.
She continued that it might be “ridiculous” but said that such confusion “propels the joke.”
Lorenz quoted Caldwell, who said, “People see the memes and want to know where the joke came from.”
He added that this is part of the reason why “they’ll watch the video too.”
Hyperrealistic cakes, according to cake studio owner Natalie Sideserf, are usually made of fondant which is a type of icing that’s made from sugar, water, gelatin and vegetable shortening.
