The Brief: A photo of a plain chicken egg has passed Kylie Jenner's birth announcement to become the most-liked Instagram post of all time with 31 million likes and counting.

Bluesquiggle
DEEP DIVE

On January 4th, 2019, a profile with the name “world_record_egg” posted a photo of a plain brown egg with the caption:

Let’s set a world record together and get the most liked post on Instagram. Beating the current world record held by Kylie Jenner (18 million)! We got this 🙌#LikeTheEgg #EggSoldiers #EggGang

Since then, this egg, which now has a blue check verified Instagram account, gathered over 31 million likes, almost doubling Kylie Jenner‘s previous record-setting post.

The secret to the egg’s success is not entirely evident, but it is clear that it’s gone viral. Supporters of the egg, also known as #EggSoldiers or #EggGang have been campaigning on behalf of the egg, commenting on Kylie Jenner’s Instagram, urging their friends to like the egg, and making egg-related memes.

World Record Egg has inspired a number of copycat accounts, some of which try to impersonate the original egg while others try to get another photo to beat the world record for most Instagram likes.

Only two weeks into 2019 and we already have Big Chungus, Lemon Car Memes, and a resurgence of Ugandan Knuckles memes. It seems like we’ve reached peak randomness, but the internet may continue to churn out such absurd and viral content…

Kylie’s Response

Unshaken, Kylie responded by reposting a meme of herself cracking an egg and trying to fry it on the sidewalk on a hot day. She captioned the video “Take that little egg.”

View this post on Instagram

Take that little egg

A post shared by Kylie (@kyliejenner) on

Egg Memes

This whole egg ordeal is a meme in and of itself. It’s also inspired numerous memes about the absurdity of a single egg taking the internet by storm and setting a world record.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BsnV7gTg2_M/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

View this post on Instagram

hit or miss i guess kylie missed hUH

A post shared by isa loves heejin <3 (@filmsbyisa) on

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bsj55LHHXwx/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

And here’s a video of YouTuber Patrick Starrr using makeup to “become the world record egg:”