‘Nothing like y’all core’ is a new weird TikTok trend that ironically exposes internet users for wanting to be different

“Nothinglikeyallcore” is, well, nothing like the rest of the “-core” memes. TikTok users are tagging uploads “nothing like y’all core” as they deconstruct a basic meme or premise into something unrecognizable by the end.

It’s visually similar to corecore and as chaotic and surreal as overstimulation memes — two self-aware trends that both seemed to be a comment on the trends themselves as well as overall meme culture and the attention spans of internet users.

The new trend originates from the “I’m Nothing Like Y’all” meme that Know Your Meme dates back to starting around 2018. Using a 2012 stock image of a goldfish jumping out of a fishbowl, people started making fake inspirational captions that suggested they were different and unique compared to everyone else.

Initially, the meme’s inspirational message stayed the same when TikTok users started playing around with it. The hashtag #nothinglikeyallcore has 16 million views on TikTok and is paired with photo slideshows where the original image gets increasingly reimagined and recaptioned until it’s completely deconstructed by the end.

For example, one #nothinglikeyallcore video posted on Oct. 24 starts with the original inspirational stock image message — “I’m nothing like y’all” — and devolves into “I’m like y’all” and “I’m nothing” to “I’m y’all” and then “I’m paracetamol,” which references another popular meme from 2019.

That sense of comradery between users who understand the references throughout #nothinglikeyallcore is reminiscent of why niche meme accounts were so popular, especially among Gen Z users, in 2017 and 2018. These accounts were dedicated to hyperspecific and ironic posts that seemed to tap into something mainstream meme accounts couldn’t.

“If you tried to explain this hyperspecific topic or thing that happened in real life people would be like, ‘Uh, what are you talking about?’” a 15-year-old meme account owner told the Daily Beast in 2017. “The humor behind it is because it’s so hyperspecific that when you do find a niche meme that you relate to, you feel like, ‘Wow somebody out there understands.’ You can laugh about it.”

A lot of the variations of #nothinglikeyallcore end up referencing other older, popular memes at one point or another. In a different TikTok, the creator manages to evolve a screenshot of someone receiving a breakup text and responding with the “man breaking chains” meme to be about paracetamol in 15 slides.

One creator managed to morph the typical slideshow format into a video reminiscent of corecore, which racked up over 42,000 views in a week. Corecore memes, which are multiple unrelated videos spliced together, are a commentary on the oversaturation of media and how scrolling through nonstop videos desensitizes viewers.

But layering multiple memes together into a, for lack of a better word, mega-meme like #nothinglikeyallcore isn’t limited to the current TikTok trend. Some popular memes have been arguably overtaken at times by creators who have added more and more obscure meme references to the original memes — making the final product the ultimate inside joke among those who get it and nonsensical to those who don’t.

For example, look at this mashup of the “Mary Jane defending Peter Parker” meme and the Gossip Girl-inspired “Go piss girl.”

Or check out this mashup of the “unpopular opinion” meme and The Bear‘s Jeremy Allen White staring blankly into the camera for a photoshoot.

The “tonite, tonight queen???” text meme format has been around for a while and is now revitalized with the internet’s new obsession with Pop Crave seemingly captioning every picture of a celebrity with “stuns in new photo.”

In a Reddit post from 2018, one user asked whether anyone had recommendations for a “subreddit of multi-level memes.”

“Memes that would take a long time to explain to the uninformed, that have multiple references to other memes and are complicated,” the user specified.

Ironically, the message there — searching for a community of “informed” meme users — seems to play on the name of the current TikTok trend: that self-described chronically online internet users are “nothing like y’all,” but they might be a lot like each other.

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