The Brief: A popular Twitter meme asks the question "babe, are you ok?" to joke about people's uncharacteristic behaviors.
DEEP DIVE
“Babe are you ok/you’ve barely touched your” memes set up a joke based on the premise that someone is concerned about their significant other’s abnormal behavior. Popular on Twitter, these memes highlight peculiar activities and habits by suggesting it’s strange when someone neglects to do them.
babe are you okay youโre barely consuming your five forms of media at the same time
— constantine (@cnstntnnn) January 11, 2021
According to Know Your Meme, iterations of these memes have appeared online for years before they became particularly popular in the summer and fall of 2020. They’ve remained popular on Twitter into 2021 where people use them to talk about a wide variety of subjects.
r u ok babe u havenโt called anything orwellian in a while
— ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ (@YuckyTom) January 10, 2021
Some iterations only start with the phrase “babe, are you ok?” before pointing out some out-of-the-ordinary behavior while others add “you’ve barely touched your…” to suggest that the person they’re addressing isn’t eating their favorite food or doing their favorite activity.
are you ok babe? youโve hardly touched your among us drip waffles pic.twitter.com/WkSUi4PFnb
— perry (@yuusvke) January 8, 2021
babe are u ok? youโve hardly posted any communist propaganda today
— maddie (@maddieinanarchy) January 13, 2021
For those that wake up every day and choose violence:
babe, are you okay? youโve hardly touched the violence you wake up every day and choose.
— Joshua Simon (@JoshuaSimonSays) January 13, 2021
babe are u ok youโre barely harmonizing in the sea shanty
— jen merritt!!! (@jennifermerr) January 15, 2021
you alright babe? you hardly said cows when we passed that field of cows
— mรญkey motorcykey (@Tallboi_Icedtea) November 8, 2020
Babe are u ok? Youโve barely touched your pint of vegetable stock ? pic.twitter.com/d5ODUqOans
— ๐๐๐ด๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐ฟ๐ถ๐น๐๐๐ (@KingCryBabyx) December 22, 2020
babe are you ok you've barely touched your endlessly increasing pile of work that you are expected to do even though we are in the middle of a pandemic
— jonny sun has a new book coming out in april! (@jonnysun) January 13, 2021
Babe are you ok? I said โauto glass repairโ and you didnโt say โauto glass replaceโ ?
— Lucy Watson (@shesgonestella) November 26, 2020
Babe, are you ok? Youโve barely touched your Tokyo Disneyland exclusive Baymax curry pic.twitter.com/9e69YmWLDC
— Cupcakes & Coasters๐ขโจ (@cupcake_coaster) November 11, 2020