The Ocean Is Not A Soup, Moron
I came across a video in my YouTube shorts feed that features some bozo lip syncing a soundbite from another video. To which I traced its source to an animated clip.
Some people would probably give me a lot of flack for this one. “Costa-Rica, it’s just people having a bit of fun. It’s not that serious.” But then it hit me, and it’s memes like this that cause an ocean of infections means of thinking through a misunderstanding of language.
The video features two characters. One of them is a guy who looks like he stared into the void and it stared back. The other is confused to the others astonishment. And the conversation goes something along these lines:
“THE OCEAN IS A SOUP!!”
“What? That’s silly, how could that be?”
“Think about it, how do you make a soup?”
“Well let’s see, you take some water, add a bunch of vegetables and maybe some meat.”
….
“OH MY GOD THE OCEAN IS A SOUP!!”
“THEOCEANISASOUP!!!”
Annoying.
Just a prime example of a fifth grader’s understanding of the English language and how it can easily be used to manipulate someone into accepting such an absurd idea.
It’s not like soups aren’t brought to boil. That the vegetables and meats are not even alive. Or that many bases aren’t comprised of broths and reductions rather than just simply water.
I’ve had plenty of spergs try and make fun of me for picking apart the language used with things like this. Pretending as if it isn’t important. Memes have become infectious in the wrong ways. Though many are harmless, and some actually contain lots of wisdom through their simplicity. But it’s silly memes like this that come off as destructive simply because someone will hear this and think that this is a legitimate argument for claiming that the ocean is a “soup”.
Say what you will about what that means for the culture at large all you want. Or the level of intelligence of your average meme consumer. But this is not much different from the whole “water isn’t wet” bullshit.
While English might be confusing for many, words have meaning. And they don’t just stop having meaning because some idiot wants to have a laugh through some obnoxious reasoning that (no pun intended) muddles the waters even more.
I would also hardly qualify seaweed and coral as “vegetables” and in my personal opinion, I highly doubt they make great ingredients for soup anyway.
To take it further, what would you say marks the difference between a soup and a stew? Why wouldn’t the ocean be considered a stew? After all, they are functionally the same, no?
I’ll give you a moment
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What’d you come up with?
The words used indicate the method in which they are cooked. Soups are boiled, and a stew is slowly simmered. Often thicker and more rich. Imagine that. It’s almost a significant distinction if you actually want to understand the words you use in order to express yourself correctly.
But because internet amateur comedians want to pretend they’re George Carlin and play around with words while ignoring definitions and uses. The whole thing becomes a muddled garbage collage of confusing usage of words in order to land a punchline. At least Carlin’s bit on “Stuff vs Shit” is hilarious because he’s not bending the rules of the words themselves. He is making fun of the slang that adjusts their usage when it suits people and how it suits people. THAT is why his bit is funny.
“Ever notice how your STUFF is STUFF but someone else’s STUFF is SHIT!?”
It’s almost a sort of exaggerated glimpse into the human inclination to accumulate stuff that we depend on in our every day lives. Not a mere oversimplification of the ideas themselves. A cheap and childish method to creating such infectious memes like this one.