BY MEGHAN WEATHERALL
Memes are great. They entertain you for a good 30 seconds and then you move on with your life.
Over the years, people have created great memes that circulate the Internet for over a year, while others burn out fast. A few of the more memorable ones include: Damn Daniel (a high school student who had a friend who created vines saying “Damn Daniel” when he wore his white Vans shoes. This got them invited onto The Ellen DeGeneres Show); Evil Kermit (Kermit in a hood trying to tell you to do something you shouldn’t); Harambe (a gorilla that was killed by zoo keepers after a young boy fell into his enclosure); Grumpy Cat; and one of the biggest memes of 2016, Joe Biden (these memes centred around Biden pranking, at the time, president elect Donald Trump).
However, there is one meme that stands out from the rest.
It features a young, fiery, red-headed girl who appeared on the Dr. Phil show in September of last year. Danielle Bregoli, also known as cash me outside girl, was brought onto the show by her mother Barbra Ann. By age 13, Danielle had dropped out of school, been in multiple physical fights, stolen her mom’s car and an employee of the show’s car, and continues to be disrespectful to her mother. Dr. Phil sat down with them and tried to talk to the girl about her behaviour and how they got to this point of needing him to help them out.
During the episode, half of it was Danielle barely speaking English. She came out with a line that snowballed her popularity. She said, “All these hoes laughin’. Cash me outside, how bow dah?”
Yes, she told the audience they were hoes and threatened to take them outside and fight them when they laughed at her.
After this show, a meme was created which went viral. Companies now contact her and will pay her to sell their products. She has even signed a reality TV deal with one of the seven companies that have contacted her.
Is this where our world is going? We already have to sit back and watch President Trump tweet about things that are false and sad. Are we really going to give millions of dollars to a girl who can barely form a proper sentence? Have TV show producers and companies (including Instagram, Fit Tea, Postmates and the Rolling Loud Music Festival) gotten so desperate for views and money that they are willing to promote the violent fights she gets into with her own mother?
People see what Danielle is doing and they decide that they could do that too. People will try and copy her to become famous and make millions.
Companies shouldn’t be promoting this behaviour. Instead they should be talking to the people who are doing something good for the world. There are hundreds of people overlooked by companies because they decide getting the views is better than promoting someone who is making a difference.
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