The ‘He wants that cookie so effing bad’ meme refers to a viral tweet on X (formerly Twitter) showing a Starbucks cake pop that is marketed as a bumblebee but looks like a cat staring dramatically at a chocolate chip cookie beside it in the display case.
Origin of the ‘he wants that cookie so effing bad’ meme
The meme originates from netizan @cowboyENJOY on X (formerly known as Twitter) from June 24th, 2023. In the tweet, the OP shared a photo that she took at Starbucks of a bumblebee cake pop next to a chocolate chip cookie in the display case.
The consensus online is that the “bumblebee” cake pop looks more like a cat, and in this instance, it looks like it is staring at the chocolate chip cookie beside it with longing. @cowboyENJOY captioned the photo, “he wants that cookie so effing bad.”
It didn’t take long before the photo went viral, with over 3.6 million views on the tweet and over 18K retweets to date. People in the quote-retweets were sharing photos and screenshots that fit the same kind of vibes as they saw in @cowboyENJOY’s post or sharing how they related to the bumblebee cake pop’s plight.
Spread of the ‘he wants that cookie so bad’ meme
The ‘he wants that cookie so effing bad’ post was so simple and funny that it sparked a meme trend of photos in a similar composition as the original. In this trend, folks share a photo or video from romantic pairs, whether they are together in canon or not, where one of the pair is obviously in love with the other and is staring longingly at them, much like with the cake pop and its cookie crush.
The meme format spread outside of X to other social media platforms like TikTok, where it went viral once more in mid-July 2024. Folks on the video app participating in the meme put screenshots and clips of their favorite ships to dramatic music.
As the meme went viral for the second time, many on social media asked how Starbucks could market something that looks nothing like a bumblebee as such, to which TikToker @omnomz3 shared one likely possibility on July 14th, 2024. Their video has been viewed over 292.5K times and has over 6.3K likes.
Meme examples
Based on the format of the ‘he wants that cookie so effing bad’ meme, folks on social media are sharing relatable screenshots and clips from all different kinds of fandoms. The longing look when the person you’re in love with isn’t looking is a very typical narrative framing device in TV and film, and there are so many examples for folks to choose from, even if some might argue that the ship in question to be a stretch of the imagination.
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