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Ariana Grande's new song 'Thank U, Next' is now the world's most flexible meme

This meme is teaching me love, patience and pain.

Mark Serrels Editorial Director
Mark Serrels is an award-winning Senior Editorial Director focused on all things culture. He covers TV, movies, anime, video games and whatever weird things are happening on the internet. He especially likes to write about the hardships of being a parent in the age of memes, Minecraft and Fortnite. Definitely don't follow him on Twitter.
Mark Serrels
2 min read
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As we all know, a musician's ability to remain relevant in the hellscape that is 2018 is dependent solely on their ability to make their songs and actions worthy of meme status.

The master of this game, clearly, is Kanye West. Drake is undoubtedly a close runner-up.

But friends, a new challenger has appeared. Her name is Ariana Grande. Thanks to her new song, "Thank U, Next", Grande has an out of control meme on her hands.  Allow me to explain.

"Thank U, Next" is essentially a song (a really good song, actually) that has Grande going down the list of her most recent high-profile ex-boyfriends. She's had a tough run to say the least. "One taught me love," she sings, "one taught me patience, one taught me pain."

Now, thanks to the power of the internet, that open-hearted honest song about the breakdown of tragic relationships has become the meme to end all memes.

At risk of over explaining the meme, here's an example:

One taught me love, one taught me patience, one taught me pain.

This one might be my favourite:

But, you see, it's endlessly malleable, like the best memes, with the ability to EVOLVE...

It's applicable to everything, even potato chip flavours.

Now we're full circle to the original music meme king himself. Time truly is a flat circle...

English people still haven't recovered from the World Cup.

This one hurts.

A lot of people have been doing this one:

And uh, way too many people have done this one.

I relate to this on a deep personal level...

Even Grande herself is getting in on it.

This meme is very much teaching me love, patience and pain.

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