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naraburns  nihil supernum  2yr ago (text post)   31477 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of November 7, 2022

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You'd think, but no.

Indeed there was even a joke in 2014 and series of memes "Based in What!?" that had some clueless character insistently asking the question, with the joke being the audience should know its freebased crack. Though you're right most people don't know it and its obscure enough (freebasing) that The crack reference is rediscovered and reinterpreted into the culture of the term fairly regularly.

But because its always being rediscovered, the term is never able to memetically diverge from that meaning

I think the scripted "based on what?" comeback works well enough with the down-to-earth interpretation too, though.

How could we resolve this? Poll about awareness of that origin? For what it's worth, the knowyourmeme article has no mention of freebasing or cocaine, and I would've expected something that is inextricably linked with the public perception of the meme to wind up on there.

It does mention the term basehead, though they soft sell it pretty hard with, "that he perceived as an insult."

Based God (rapper Lil B) (who also has a KnowYourMeme page lol) is an example that predates the wider popularization of "based" and was definitely a reference to freebasing. I think this origin was quickly obscured as the term began to spread though.

Here I was thinking it was "bass head" as someone who listens to loud music with the bass turned up.

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