Image: Getty

Everybody’s always asking me: What’s the new meme? I’m here to tell you: The new meme is plabe.



A meme happens when someone does something funny on a website somewhere, and other people on the internet start doing the same funny thing, but they put their own spin on it. Maybe you find out about the meme when it pops into your feed, or maybe you find out about it on a website like the one you’re reading now, where writers like me explain the joke of the meme in great detail.

Anyway: The new meme is plabe. For a while, plabe has been bubbling under the surface of internet culture, and it’s finally ready to make its big debut. After this post, you can expect to see plabe texts from your normie friends; plabe tweet screenshots on your favorite meme Instragram accounts; plabe memes from Hillary Clinton’s Blackberry as she sits on a military airplabe, wearing sunglasses. Check it out.

THATS IT IM BUYING A PLABE TICKET IM READY TO FIGHT SOMEONE — Ashton (@daddyifeng) October 24, 2015

We stuck on the plabe — Henry (@Kyroenna) July 12, 2016

if youre racist and in south Africa

please board a plabe and head over to Australia — KampusKrew otis (@OtisReplay) January 26, 2016

Boarding the same plabe as milo yiannopolous lmao — Lin (@CosmicLin) February 5, 2016

I MISS HANNAH AND HER FAM SO MUCH JFC I NEED THE NEXT PLABE OUT OF HERE — Nicola☔️ (@BMTHxNicola) February 7, 2016

What if I boarded an airplane. An airplabe flying to another country far away & had a new job & place to live. Would it be worth it? #idk — Joseph Ward (@Spudnut_Joefool) May 4, 2016

Dont get the plabe tickets just yet — UNIVER$E @ WORK 24/7 (@My1Universe) April 22, 2016

MY MOM ALREADY BOUGHT MY PLABE TICKET FOR MEXICO SHE WANTS ME OUTTA HERE — Air Bud (@sehobl) May 9, 2016

UPDATE OFF THE PLABE I DIDNT DIE — ㅤ (@werkthemat) June 6, 2016

plabe — dean (@_qrow) June 14, 2016

I NEED MY ID TO GET ON THE PLABE AND I DONT HAVE IT UH OH WHAT AM I GONNA DO TOMORROW — sandieggs (@Dxeg0) July 19, 2016

Im about to watch a guy jump out of a plabe and try to land in a net. This. Is america yall. — Bailey (@BLuyter) July 31, 2016

SHE OFF TGEH PLABE — kinga (@jenxmishx) March 21, 2016

THE PLABE HAS LANDED — shoosh (@ultimateshuckle) August 4, 2015

plabe me — johan (@Tiobanx) January 9, 2016

Plabe - me — johan (@Tiobanx) January 6, 2016

Finally in the plabe. Still feel nauseous but I hope it'll fade soon — YVETTE (@YvetteG_Music) June 29, 2016

Prayers for the plabe crash victims in Atlanta!! — Tabatha Phillips (@Phillips2407) May 8, 2015

Wow they have found the plabe in the ocean — MM (@masonmursell) March 24, 2014

Wow they have found the plabe in the ocean. Classic.

The idea behind plabe is simple: take a commonly used word—plane—and replace its third consonant with B, the adjacent letter on a QWERTY keyboard, for an absurd and humorous effect.

You can even do the plabe with your favorite songs.

Im leaving on a Jet plabe, dont know when il be back again! :) (8) — bronagh wyatt (@Bronaghwyatt) January 11, 2010

and one day we will die & our ashes will fly from the aeroplabe over the sea — Michael Clark (@RealMikeClark) December 14, 2012

And music is my aeroplane,is mi aeroplabe — Mar (@Mar_Astigarraga) July 6, 2013

STRAIGHT TO HELL CAME ON AND I WAS LIKE "WHY IS MY DAD LISTENJNG TO PAPER PLABES FOR A SPLIT SECOND — follow @/kickboyface (@gaynihilist) January 2, 2016

As you can see, plabe is really catching on in the meme scene. Some Twitter users have even mashed plabe up with the classic “Bush did 9/11” meme, for a killer meme remix.



@GottaLaff @janskay's husband works in aerospace and he says parts of the 9/11 pentagon plabe wreckage dont match — Bailey's uncle Ben (@loveisequal80) September 13, 2010

Be mad a plabe NEVER hit da Pentagon. How a plane hit da ground and there are no skid marks on da lawn into da Pentagon — OhMazin_Me (@DamN_OhMaR) September 11, 2011

Where the eff is the plabe at pentagon ????? — Syukran (@terkster) September 11, 2011

And you know it’s a good meme when media Twitter starts getting in on the action.

thankful that i'm getting on a plabe soon and won't have access to all yalls #GameofThrones tweets — Marcus Gilmer (@marcusgilmer) June 27, 2016

Nice.

Often, in the course of doing meme journalism, we dig into the nitty gritty history. Where did plabe come from? Why? Is it a reference to a rap song, or a ‘90s cartoon? I can’t answer all of those questions, but I can tell you about the first plabe on Twitter. It seems to have come from plabe superfan @SupaMagg, who tweeted this cheeky bit of environmental advice back in April 2008.



If you're going to the same plabe you should carpool. It's more environmentally friendly. — MC Castellaneta (@SupaMagg) April 6, 2008

It seems that since then, the whole internet has caught plabe fever. Paste your favorite plabe memes in the comments.