Catch meme if you can

If I’m ever asked what selection of written words has had the profoundest effect on me, I will have to point out a bit of fashion advice found in an issue of VICE magazine from the early aughts. The sage wisdom passed down by a nameless VICE editor was to be cognizant of your age when you choose your clothing, and once you turn 35 to dress like John Cassavetes in Rosemary’s Baby. Not only has this served me well for the last year and a half in terms of fashion, it’s also offered a reminder that in however I choose to express myself, I should first be aware of who I am and from where my expression is coming.

This principle largely escaped former San Francisco 49ers and Oakland Raiders wide receiver (let’s not mention his Seattle Seahawks tenure yet) Jerry Rice this past Wednesday when he tweeted, “Cash me ousside #HowBowDah.” In one fell swoop, Rice euthanized the horse of a meme that had been beaten to death by a barrage of internet dads and Facebook moms since a 13-year-old girl named Danielle Bregoli appeared on the September 15th episode of The Dr. Phil Show.

As with most guests of The Dr. Phil Show, Miss Bregoli, it can be surmised, has not benefitted from a quality upbringing. In fact, the reason why she was paraded on this specific syndicated freak show was because of her penchant for stealing cars. After suffering through a healthy dose of mockery from the studio audience, Miss Bregoli invited her detractors to engage in a physical altercation by crying out, “Catch me outside, how about that?” Given what one can assume to be a nominal-atbest education in elocution, the phonetic spelling of her terms of engagement would be better expressed as “Cash me ousside, howbow dah?”

Rice’s use of this particular meme was distasteful on two fronts: 1) At the age of 54, there are some things that are no longer meant for you. A failure to realize this invokes all of the regrettable memories of an NFL superstar at the end of his career trying to hold on (now, we’ ll mention his Seattle Seahawks tenure). 2) After graduating from Mississippi Valley State University in 1985, Rice went on to earn more than $42 million over the course of his career. To see him join in the mockery of a poorly educated, impoverished young girl seems like the very definition of punching down.

From fashion to social media, an awareness of context remains everything.