Wednesday star Jenna Ortega clarifies that all those tweets you’ve been seeing on your timeline are misinformation.
No, she didn’t, but Ortega also didn’t say that “Overwatch” is her favorite video game or that Indigo by RM is her favorite album. Spreading misinformation about Ortega’s favorite things is just the latest meme proliferating on Twitter.
The meme is a spin on the way popular unverified entertainment news accounts like @FilmUpdates, @PopBase, and @PopCrave post updates. These tweets all follow a similar format, using a fake quote from Ortega to convey that something is her favorite.
According to Know Your Meme, the meme was started by @ministryofpop, a K-Pop stan and @PopBase parody account. On Dec. 2, the account tweeted, “Jenna Ortega reveals when she was preparing for her role as Tim Burton’s #Wednesday she listened to the GOT7 EP by @GOT7 as a way to get in the zone. ‘I listen to K-pop and they’re my favorite K-Pop group. I think their discography is superior.'” The tweet garnered over 10,000 likes and kickstarted the trend. In the days since, everyone can’t stop spreading lies about the actor with every corner of stan Twitter claiming that their fave is also Ortega’s fave.
It’s mostly harmless — unless you’re one of the unlucky few who actually believe it. Captain Marvel‘s Brie Larson fell for a tweet that claimed that Ortega’s favorite Marvel character is Captain Marvel. In response to the tweet, Larson invited the Netflix star to come on her YouTube channel to teach her Wendesday’s show-stopping dance. Upon realizing the truth, Larson quickly deleted her tweet.
The proliferation of this meme is both a reflection of how fandom often defines your online experience and the internet’s peculiar relationship with spreading misinformation. It’s a strange meme, and it’s hard to say if those users coming across these tweets with thousands of likes know whether or not they’re fake. Spreading deceiving information as a joke has long been a strain of internet humor, but parsing through whether or not a tweet is from a reliable source has never been more confusing. Remember folks: We can’t have memes unless we have media literacy.
Still, it’s also a testament to stan Twitter’s obsession with Wednesday. And to be honest, some of these are pretty funny. Here’s a collection of some of the banal and bizarre things Twitter users are saying Ortega loves.
Succession‘s Kendall Roy
Midnights by Taylor Swift
Game of Thrones‘ Daenerys Targaryen
INDIGO by RM
Whole Lotta Red by Playboi Carti
Now, when will Ortega break her silence and reveal her actual favorite things?
