States’ Stay Staycationing Stably

How great is that alliteration headline huh? Jaque did a really good job with it

This picture of the state of Illinois has nothing to do with the story. I just
felt obligated to put in a picture of my home state that is also my favorite.

Italy took the world by storm when videos went viral of quarantined citizens singing from their balconies, but the United States is saying “Italy Spitaly” and trying to one-up those pizzamen. 

The hashtag “Spitaly” began to trend on Monday when a man in West Virginia posted a video to twitter of himself singing the John Denver classic “Take Me Home, Country Roads” out his window. His neighbors slowly began joining as the empty streets were turned into havens of music where everyone was equal and all were one. The video is captioned “AMERICA has WAY better music than those pasta-eating GOOMBAS over in #Spitaly.” 

This tweet sparked a huge trend as citizens of different states showed off their unique identity through music. Californians can be heard singing “Hotel California,” complete with a sweet acapella guitar solo. The citizens of Delaware posted a beautiful rendition of Simple Minds’ “Don’t You’ Forget About Me” that got overshadowed by Maine’s “Rock Lobster.” 

One of the most viewed videos of the trend was actually posted by a Xavier student, senior exploratory major Mike Hawk. “I felt incredibly inspired,” he told the Newswire, “I knew I had to do something to show the world that Oklahoma was a unique place. That’s when I watched the Netflix documentary ‘Tiger King’ and heard Joe Exotic’s beautiful piece ‘I Saw a Tiger’… I just started singing it out my window and everyone joined in. That’s when I knew tiger breeding was an integral part of my culture, and I just had to share it with the world.” Mike’s video of him and his neighbors singing has garnered 50 million views and earned him a record deal.

Since his video, the trend has escalated even further. A couple in Alabama, confused by the hashtag “Spitaly,” released a video of themselves doing some impressive spit takes from their windows. The video went viral and inspired states that previously couldn’t think of a song to just start chucking things out the window. Connecticut citizens, realizing they have no culture, just began posting videos of themselves throwing money out their windows. 

Xavier student Dixon Cider posted a video of himself in his home state Colorado, smoking marijuana and blowing it out his window. When asked if this was in connection to the hashtag, Dixon told Newswire, “Wait… there was, like, a hashtag? Just kidding, I’m not trying to perpetuate any stoner stereotypes. I was aware of the hashtag. The video of me smoking was supposed to be a post-meta ironic rumination on twitter trends and how they can force certain groups to adhere to a label.” 

Florida, never one to allow itself to be outdone, took the challenge as far as it could possibly go. College students from Florida are not even staying within the confines of their windows. Videos posted with the hashtag show huge beach parties where partygoers sing “It’s the End of the World as We Know It” before leaving the party and going to visit their grandparents. 

Meme experts say this abuse of the trend means the end of its life as a “good meme.” It may stick around on reddit for a few days, but expect your mom to be posting about it on Facebook by early next week.