【celtic eroticism】What are copypastas — and is this the beginning of the end?

News alerts are celtic eroticismirrelevant. Turn CNN off. The best way to get the breaking news is an overly horny text calling you a slut that's filled to the brim with eggplant emojis.

That text is called a copypasta, and if you're part of the more online sect of Americans, you likely received one when President Joe Biden dropped out of the 2024 race. It's decidedly NSFW, but here's a screenshot of what it might have looked like:

How nice! Credit: Screenshot

When you receive a copypasta, you're supposed to copy and paste it — hence the name — and send it to more of your contacts. It's intended like a piece of chain mail, which we first started seeing around 2006 on 4chan. It was added the dictionary in May 2021.

---

You May Also Like

---

---

Many people remember these texts from middle school ("send this to 10 ppl or you'll never get kissed"), and there are, of course, various other ways the fun text format is used (spreading misinformation during the COVID-19 pandemic, for instance). We saw a modern resurgence of these chain messages in 2018, but they seemed more tied to the texts you might get in middle school. Eventually, they floated into holiday territory and got a lot hornier (e.g., Santa’s about to slide 🎅🏾😉 down your hot 🔥 hot 🔥chimney tonight). They became more political and more sexually explicit than ever before. And today, they're synonymous for the breaking news alert.

Mashable Trend Report Decode what’s viral, what’s next, and what it all means. Sign up for Mashable’s weekly Trend Report newsletter. By clicking Sign Me Up, you confirm you are 16+ and agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Thanks for signing up!

There's plenty of reasons for this evolution. The people who write them aren't terribly concerned with accuracy, so they can move quickly with breaking news. Our political world is continuously disappointing us in new and more horrifying ways, and copypastas are one way to add some levity to a system that has left us jaded. As several copypasta writers told CT Jones in Rolling Stonein 2018, "the meme format isn’t just a good laugh— it’s a way for people to use humor to address a world that has become increasingly dystopian."

But I fear something for fans of the copypasta: its death may be approaching.

There's a cycle memes often fall victim to, not one unlike anything else embedded in popular culture. It looks like this: origin, niche spread, viral spread, peak popularity, adaptation and mutation, decline, obsolescence, and an optional resurgence. We're solidly in copypasta's second life — in the "adaptation and mutation" phase. The texts have moved from holiday texts and messages suited for middle schoolers to some of the horniest NSFW texts you'll receive. We got horny copypastas on the anniversary of the insurrection anniversary, when former President Trump was convicted, when someone attempted to assassinate former President Trump, and plenty about Biden dropping out.

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

Adapting the meme by adding the horniness has kept it relevant for longer, but it can't stave off a decline forever. Eventually, we'll get bored of it, because the copypasta is mainstream. Its shock quality has been replaced with predictability — a sign of doom for anything that has any hope of maintaining comedic value. As Skyler Higley, a comedian and staff writer at After Midnight, posted on X: "it’s all the same now. Joe Biden drops out. You get one of those long texts with the emojis. Someone posts the future meme 'biden dropping out reminds me of how I quit you'. people post fake texts between them and Biden. Et cetera. I feel empty."

We're reaching peak copypasta — and I'm calling it. We only have a few months before we all decide that copypastas have actually been lame all along and we experience a new meme renaissance. Start preparing your obituaries.

• focus
• relaxation
• explore
• fashion
• hotspot
• synthesize
• recreation
• knowledge

• Ondo at Music Center Plaza
• 'I Love That for You' review: Vanessa Bayer's Showtime comedy is a real treat
• Wordle today: Here's the answer, hints for June 11
• The 14 best short
• ARCTIC, Isurus top final SA open qualifier for Americas RMR
• Wordle today: Here's the answer, hints for June 7
• 'Severance' cinematographer Jessica Lee Gagné on working with Ben Stiller and more
• Depp v. Heard: What the trial and verdict say about our culture
• ‘Gaman Birds of Masato Wayne Sumida’ at Armory Center for the Arts
• Amazon will launch its drone delivery service later this year

• Hilarious meme demands to know what's preventing men from looking like this
• Microsoft says it won't sell facial recognition tech to police, either
• The 'Hip Hop Harry' dance circle song is taking over TikTok and Twitter
• Enjoy watching as a slaver's statue is torn down and dumped in a river
• Calls to delete popular astrology app Co—Star after controversial protest meme
• 'Atlanta's Missing and Murdered: The Lost Children' HBO Doc: Review
• Grindr has removed its controversial ethnicity filters
• During a pandemic, protest livestreams are more important than ever
• John Boyega makes emotional speech to Black Lives Matter protesters in London
• Belle Delphine, known for selling 'gamer girl bathwater,' is back

• Ozeki’s ‘Tale for the Time Being’ on Shortlist for Man Booker Prize
• 'Lots of luck on his trip to the moon': Biden rips Elon Musk on plan to cut Tesla jobs
• Photos from 2022 March For Our Lives protests
• 'Squid Game' creator drops hints about Season 2
• ‘Cool Japan’ at L.A. County Fair
• How to filter sensitive content on Instagram
• The 11 best Hindi movies streaming on Amazon Prime
• Facebook parent company Meta gives up on building a camera
• L.A. Underground Film Fest to Screen ‘Lil Tokyo Reporter’
• Apple is reportedly planning a 'small' 12

• Matsuri of Faith in Torrance
• Has Instagram gone too far with ads?
• Wordle today: Here's the answer, hints for June 5
• Amazon will launch its drone delivery service later this year
• Copies of ‘Voices from the Canefields’ Available at Torrance Event
• The best tampon alternatives, and how to use them
• Most streamed movies this week are all about vikings, dinos, and hedgehogs (June 11)
• The 10 best Google Chrome extensions to make your life easier
• YEKINDAR bullies NAVI as Liquid move to 2
• Elon Musk will answer questions from Twitter employees