The Brief: A comment about the possibility of needing an assault rifle to defend small children against 30-50 feral hogs has temporarily taken over Twitter in a viral meme.

Bluesquiggle
DEEP DIVE

It appears that 30-50 feral hogs have been set loose on Twitter in just 3-5 minutes, all while my small kids play.

Ok,  but seriously, all this “30-50 feral hogs” jokes can be pretty confusing (and unamusing) without context. This meme was born on Monday from a Twitter thread about gun control.

After over 30 people died in two mass shootings less than 24 hours apart in El Paso and Dayton, singer Jason Isbell condemned the ownership of assault weapons on Twitter.

One response came from Twitter user William McNabb. It read:

Legit question for rural Americans – How do I kill the 30-50 feral hogs that run into my yard within 3-5 mins while my small kids play?

Exactly what McNabb meant by this isn’t entirely clear. Is he referring to a situation he’s actually experienced before, trying to advocate for assault rifle ownership, or trolling us?

Whatever his intentions were, it’s become a widely-exploitable meme topic. Some of these feral hogs memes explore the serious issues behind the original comment while others run with the absurdity of a situation in which such a hog invasion actually occurred.

While packs wild hogs have, in fact, been known to wreak havoc on rural areas in the United States, McNabb’s proposed scenario is both unlikely and oddly specific.

Karen and the kids: 

Song Parodies

In the seemingly endless variations of these memes, song parodies are a popular format in which the lyrics of well-known songs are replaced with references to 30-50 feral hogs.

This distracted boyfriend meme says it all…