The “one has to go” meme invites people on social media to feel, if only for an instant, what it would be like to have the power of a god. We look upon a selection of famous Chrises and, like a Roman emperor watching gladiators bleed for his amusement, turn our thumbs down at Pratt, sparking a Chrismergency for the ages.
A new short from Benjamin Flores imagines what it would be like if the power of the “one’s gotta go” meme was taken even further—if it had consequences even greater than causing celebrities to engage in digital group hugs meant to soothe their planet-sized egos.
“One Gotta Go” shows Flores, in a comedic take on the now-familiar screenshot horror style, logging onto Twitter for a nice day of endless scrolling, browsing through The Chive photo galleries, googling depression advice, and arguing with strangers in DMs. At one point, after seeing a “one has to go” meme for sitcoms, Flores replies to say Frasier can be axed instead of Friends, Seinfeld, or The Office. Then, he votes against hotdogs in a competition between them, pizza, nachos, and burgers. When the tab changes to Buzzfeed, we learn of a global hotdog shortage and, from Wikipedia, that the food is now referenced entirely in past tense.
Flores tries to calm himself down with “soothing images” of stuff like freshly-cut grass, but it’s too late. The short goes on, fully detailing the horror of truly having to choose which thing in a selection of things has to go. There are dead turtles, vanishing Frasier episodes, disappearing testicles, and a normal Twitter user who goes mad with newly-discovered power.
Watch the entire short for yourself and soak in the terror that comes with so much meme-based responsibility.
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