These ‘spicy’ memes hold a mirror up to Charlotte culture

“I was just mindlessly scrolling through memes,” they told me. (We’re keeping the creator’s identity private per their request and to uphold the anonymous nature of the account.) “I saw a funny format I liked … So I made the meme.”

Within 30 minutes on a Thursday afternoon in November, Spicy CLT Memes was born.

Now, one month in, the meme page is inching closer to the 10,000 follower mark, posting daily images that hold a mirror up to Charlotte. Fair warning: A few are NSFW.

Why these memes matter: Charlotte is a city growing so fast, it’s building its identity as we go. In a lot of ways, we’re a city still in our awkward teenage years, and this account helps capture those moments.

The creator didn’t expect to get a thousand followers, let alone 10 times that. “I was watching this thing gain some traction with absolute confusion,” they said.

“I love memes, but I didn’t make memes until literally (four) weeks ago.”

The page is more than memes, though. On Instagram stories, they’ve posted about adoptable pets, holiday gift ideas from local businesses, and Covid-friendly restaurants.

The face of Spicy CLT Memes is Spicy, a red chili pepper cutout with a crown. Imagine Flat Stanley as an Instagram influencer — that’s Spicy. In the page’s “in the wild” series, it highlights local restaurants and bars, leaving behind stickers for folks to find.

With the pandemic and the election, 2020 has been plenty mean on the internet. We’re all a little frustrated, depressed, or lonely — or a combination of all three. For me at least, social media can make those feelings worse.

But this is the opposite of all that doom-scrolling and those toxic comments on social media. This is joy-scrolling.

Even if you’re the butt of the joke (we’ve been there).

South End nightclub Lost & Found, for example, has been an easy target on the page. But owner Orlando Botero says he takes it as a compliment. “It’s just funny to me.”

That’s the page’s aim. Not to be mean, just to have fun.

“I hope it gives everyone a reason to laugh at themselves. Some of them call me out, too,” the creator adds. “People forget I live here, too; that’s how I get my inspiration.”

The memes:

One is a photo of a congratulatory certificate, presented to the city of Charlotte for opening another brewery. “You did it!” a cheerful star proclaims.

Another pokes fun at Gastonia residents for claiming to be from Charlotte.

Then there’s the “Just moved to Charlotte starter pack,” including items like a Dowd membership, analyst job at Bank of America, a typical South End apartment, and the Agenda logo. “The @charlotteagenda is their handbook,” reads the caption.

This one takes a jab at the expensive and often tiny apartments many Charlotteans rent to be close to the action, only to discover there’s no action in 2020.

And, lastly, the forever relatable diss on Exit 3A, which the creator calls their least favorite part of Charlotte. “I have vowed to use whatever platform I gain with this thing to put into the universe that that exit SUCKS,” they said.

Go deeper into the world wide Charlotte web:

• 4.1 million people follow Max Dressler on TikTok, but he says he’s still just a normal Charlotte teenager
• LaMelo Ball and his 5.7M followers on Instagram is a big deal for Charlotte
• Queen City Nerve’s live streams of protests are changing Charlotte’s media scene