DEEP DIVE

Today’s Tea

On Twitter, people have been spilling the tea by adding text into a steaming cup of tea made out of parentheses, slashes, and dashes. Using this Twitter tea meme format, people can share the proverbial tea in an extra-creative way that stands out in a Twitter feed. The tea being spilled includes controversial opinions, callouts, confessions, jokes, and more. Presumably, people are copying and pasting the teacup from other Tweets and then editing it to fit their own text inside. Twitter’s character-limit, along with the number of spaces and symbols required to make the teacup mean that these Tweets contain only a few words.

This Twitter teacup meme takes the popular concept of spilling, drinking, sipping, or serving tea, and combines it with an image made out of text symbols, which is also popular in memes such as the who gon check me boo format.

Twitter Teacup Memes

Individual users, as well as brands, have utilized this meme to share their own hot takes on a variety of topics. And, of course, some people have taken the opportunity to make meta-memes out of this, posting about actual tea, the drink, rather than metaphorical “tea.”

Today’s tea:

) ) )
) ( ) ) )
_(___(____)____(___(__ (___
Isn't tea. / _
/ |
It's coffee. /____|
/
____________/

— Kyle MacLachlan (@Kyle_MacLachlan) February 13, 2019

today’s tea:

) ) )
) ( ) )
_(___(____)____(___(__ _
Crocs are /
on / |
the /__ _|
come /
up. /
________/

— Crocs Shoes (@Crocs) February 13, 2019

) ) )
) ( ) )
_(___(____)____(___(__ _
i hit my head /
really hard when / |
i was a kid /____|
now i cant /
do math /
_________ /

— eric curtin (@_ericcurtin) February 13, 2019

Today’s tea:
(
( ) )
__(_____)_____(_____(____(____
You said you’d just watch /_
an episode but watched/ |
the whole season and/__|
that’s why you’re /
__always tired__ /

— 9GAG (@9GAG) February 13, 2019

Today’s tea:

) ) )
) ( ) ) )
_(___(____)____(___(__ (__
These Lakers fans / _
wore Cavs jerseys / |
last year and /____|
we know it /
_________________/

— Atlanta Hawks (@ATLHawks) February 12, 2019

Today’s tea:

) ) ) (
) ( ) ) )
_(___(____)____(___(_______
Some /
people only wanna /
see you win if it / |
benefits them /__|
__________________/

— Luis Gonzalez (@LuisGonzalez494) February 13, 2019

Today's Tea:
) ) )
) ( ) )
_(___(____)____(___(__ _
This format /
is / |
much harder /__ _|
to use than /
it looks. /
________/

— Liz (@liz_lawlz) February 13, 2019

today’s tea:

) ) ) (
) ( ) ) ) )
_(___(__)__(___(__ (__ (___
zuko had /
the best /
redemption arc /
/
_________________/

— Zuko 🔥 (@MissingHonor) February 13, 2019

Today’s tea:

) ) )
) ( ) )
_(___(____)____(___(_____
mmmmm /

/__ |
/
good tea.
____________/

— Special Agent Dale Koopa (VIP Mix) (@tanukiboyfriend) February 13, 2019

The invitation to share “hot takes” through this meme has also inspired a number of political memes: 

here's the tea you ordered

)
) )
) ( ) )
_(___(____)____(_____( _
abortion bans /___
are classist / |
/____ |
/
__________ /

— NWLC (@nwlc) February 12, 2019

Today’s tea:

) ) )
) ( ) ) )
_(___(____)____(___(__ (___
Jeff Bezos could end/__
homelessness in / |
USA & still be the/____|
world’s richest /
person /
____________/

— Qasim Rashid, Esq. (@MuslimIQ) February 13, 2019