On social media, a girl says she was pickpocketto be fall on a bike, that the wind has ruffled her hair or the grasshoppers they destroyed her crop. Anything. And the answer is often the same: “Welcome to Ohio”, or “A normal day in Ohio” or even “It only happens in Ohio”. Which are the Italian version of “Only in Ohio”.
For a couple of months now, more or less since the end of 2022, Ohio has been on everyone’s lips on social networks. And it appears everywhere, whatever the subject, to symbolize the apotheosis of oddities and curiosities: if an event is incredible or absurd, “it only happens in Ohio”. Even if maybe it happened in Fregene.
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google trends: “ohio meme” in online searches
Why Ohio is trending on social networks
In short, the American state of Ohio is undeniably a phenomenon of the Net. Undeniably and inexplicably, as demonstrated the trend of searches on “ohio meme” (graph above, the curve is almost the same all over the world): we see these sentences in the comments, but we don’t know why. And so we ask Google.
The answer is not simple, but according to multiple sources (such as the excellent Know your Meme) the origin of everything would be Tumblr, with little surprise: on August 6, 2016, the user screenshotofdespair published an image of a bus whose digital panel bore the inscription “Ohio will be eliminated”. “. The post (which is this) it was then re-shared over 100,000 times and also reposted on Twitter and Reddit. It went viral, as they say. And it somehow gave birth to the phenomenon that still lasts today.
tiktok: a normal day in Ohio
Ohio on TikTok (and also on Twitter)
Over time, Ohio has become together the somewhat banal and conformist icon of the American middle class and of capitalism and also the symbol of the most absurd things that can happen or exist: crazy events, news stories bordering on the truth (such as the train loaded with dangerous substances and which derails and catches fire) and apparently meaningless laws (the Internet is full of pages on Ohio laws you didn’t know existed).
They are Twitter they work very well The hashtag #onlyinOhio e #OhioState come on TikTok it is talked about so much that a specific search string has been generated, also in Italian, dedicated to “Ohio accadimenti”: it collects thousands of clips, even of large or very large profiles, often of over 30 who wonder why everything This. What’s more: the hashtag #ohioexplanation has about 16,000 views, #soloinohio is close to 40,000, while #ohiomeme and #ohiomemes arrive together around 300 million and #onlyinohio and the simple #ohio (used everywhere in the world, even in South Korea) respectively exceed the quota 2 billion and 20 billion views.
google maps: where is ohio
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Is Ohio the Molise of America?
Another explanation is related to the fact that Ohio is one of those places that you know where it is but you don’t know exactly where it is: “It is bullied a bit like Molise in Italy”, as we read on TikTok. Which actually makes sense: it’s in the Midwest of the United States, in the same area as Indiana, Kentucky and Tennessee, but it’s not as famous as Indiana, Kentucky and Tennessee. It’s kind of lost in there and it’s hard to remember its true location, which is also the case in its major cities, namely Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati. Which is north of Florencejust to complicate matters further.
And if Ohio is a bit the Molise of America, his Abruzzo is Delawarewith people remembering it just because it’s where the current American president, Joe Biden, was elected as a senator for the first time. And because he was the birthplace of the actress Aubrey Plazabut that’s another story.
@capoema