# Meme research — week of 12–19 October 2026 **Window.** Monday 12 October to Monday 19 October 2026. The brief was to find this week's funny memes, pick a concept, and build a game from it. The research below is what the concept was chosen from; the game is not a summary of the memes, it is four of their verbs turned into mechanics. **How I looked.** I started from Know Your Meme's editorial slate for the week (the guides published 14–16 October are the clearest "what is trending right now" signal), then read the underlying entries for dates and spread, then checked one weekly culture roundup and one Roblox-press story for context. All pages were retrieved on 19 October 2026. --- ## The shortlist | Meme | What it is | Primary source | Verdict | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | **Lock 'Em Up / State Property** | An old man kicks two anglers off a private pond, says a man called and told him to "lock 'em up". The clip had a second wave in October 2026, including AI replacements of the man. | [Know Your Meme: Lock 'Em Up](https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/lock-em-up) · [KYM guide, 15 Oct 2026](https://trending.knowyourmeme.com/editorials/guides/what-is-the-state-property-meme-and-who-is-norman-taylor-the-viral-video-and-lock-em-up-memes-explained) | **Chosen — primary.** The meme is a rule-enforcer versus a trespasser. That is already a game loop: an objective, a patrol, a punishment, and a getaway. | | **Boo Trend** | People cross their eyes, lean into the camera and say "boo", often pranking someone else into doing it on camera. | [Know Your Meme: Boo Trend](https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/boo-trend) · [KYM guide, 15 Oct 2026](https://trending.knowyourmeme.com/editorials/guides/what-is-the-boo-trend-on-tiktok-the-origin-of-the-viral-trend-and-prank-explained) | **Chosen — the taunt.** It is the week's purest facial-expression meme, and a cross-eyed "BOO" is a readable 3D pose. It became a close-range stun. | | **Scrib Doon / Biddy Blas** | A Crocin alien in *Star Wars: Galactic Racer* (released 6 Oct 2026) boasts, "Biddy Blas. Write it down. Tattoo it on your arm…" The subtitle for "write it down" is "Scrib doon". | [Know Your Meme: Biddy Blas](https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/biddy-blas-scrib-doon) · [KYM guide, 14 Oct 2026](https://trending.knowyourmeme.com/editorials/guides/who-is-biddy-blas-and-what-does-scrib-doon-mean-the-viral-star-wars-galactic-racer-memes-explained) | **Chosen — the notebook.** "Write it down" is the perfect frame for a catch log, and a fish with a stupid name is a joke that pays every round. | | **Tip Toein' / AI Rumpelstiltskin** | An AI-generated 1980s-film Rumpelstiltskin dances to Riff Raff's "Tip Toe Wing in My Jawwdinz". The clip appeared in late August; the song pairing and spread hit late September to early October. | [Know Your Meme: AI Rumpelstiltskin](https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/ai-rumpelstiltskin-tip-toein-in-my-jordans) · [KYM guide](https://trending.knowyourmeme.com/editorials/guides/is-the-rumpelstiltskin-tip-toein-in-my-jordans-meme-ai-the-viral-80s-fantasy-movie-memes-explained) | **Chosen — the verb.** Tiptoeing is the stealth stance. Shift makes you quiet and slow; running turns the Warden's head. | | Tra La La SpongeBob | Distorted SpongeBob animation over a *Mickey Mouse Clubhouse* / *Banana Splits* mashup. | [Know Your Meme: Tra La La SpongeBob](https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/tra-la-la-spongebob) | Rejected. It is audio-first, it is somebody else's cartoon, and there is no verb to hand the player. | | Kelly Clarkson vs the $15,000 animatronic bird | A weekly-roundup favourite: a Brooklyn shop would not sell a singing bird automaton to Kelly Clarkson. | [Exclaim!, 16 Oct 2026](https://exclaim.ca/comedy/article/this-week-s-music-memes-are-getting-a-five-episode-reboot-at-hbo-october-16-2026) | Rejected. Very funny, but it is a one-off celebrity story with no repeatable player action. | | Wall-punching game gets Roblox clones | A viral browser game was cloned on Roblox the day after it was announced. | [GameRant, this week](https://gamerant.com/escape-the-walls-roblox-clones/) | Rejected as a concept. Making another wall-punching clone to comment on clones is a joke with no second layer. It is useful context, not a mechanic. | | Malfoid / female Draco Malfoy | A fandom character/roleplay wave. | Know Your Meme video, 14 Oct 2026 | Rejected. It is a character, not a loop, and the IP is someone else's. | --- ## Why the pond won The Lock 'Em Up clip is a **property dispute**. Someone believes a piece of water is his; someone else believes it is state property; a third person is threatening to call the law. That is a complete game premise: - **Objective:** take something off the property (fish). - **Enforcer:** a slow, loud man with a flashlight and a rule. - **Punishment:** "lock 'em up." - **Escape:** the truck, and the fact that the law is a phone call away. The pond in the game is deliberately not a copy of the video. It is a fictional pond, with a fictional Warden, and the only line taken from the meme is the shout itself. The rest of the Warden's dialogue is original. **The mechanic chain:** | Meme | Mechanic in STATE PROPERTY | | --- | --- | | Lock 'Em Up | Suspicion bar → chase → confiscation → three strikes → the jail rank. The Warden's scan stop is the "he's watching the water" beat. | | Boo Trend | `B` does a cross-eyed BOO. Within 9.5 studs it stuns him for 2.4 s and drops his suspicion to zero; outside that it just makes noise and raises suspicion. High risk, one escape per 9 s. | | Scrib Doon | The Tab notebook, the caught-fish names, and the "CONFISCATED" stamps. The catch log is the score screen. | | Tip Toein' | Shift tiptoe: 3.7 studs/s instead of 9, half detection, no noise. Running within 15 studs turns his head toward you. | **A note on likeness and the real person.** The Lock 'Em Up video features a real man, and the KYM entry also records an unrelated criminal case involving him. The game does not use his name, face, voice, likeness, or footage. The Warden is an original character ("Warden Pruitt"), and every line except the meme's catchphrase is written for this game. The concept borrows the *format* of the confrontation — private water, an angry owner, a call to the law — not the man. That is also why the game is called STATE PROPERTY rather than named after him. **No embedded media.** No TikTok/Instagram video, no Star Wars audio, no SpongeBob frame, no Riff Raff track. The fish names, quips, Warden lines, pond, props and UI are original. The one quoted line in the notebook is the Biddy Blas boast, attributed in-game to "an alien with a very good agent, this week". Fonts are Barlow Condensed and Space Grotesk under the SIL Open Font License (licence files in `assets/fonts/`); three.js is MIT (`vendor/THREE-LICENSE.txt`). --- ## Links Primary meme pages: - - - - - KYM guides published this week: - - - - - Context: - Exclaim!, "This Week's Music Memes Are Getting a Five-Episode Reboot at HBO: October 16, 2026" — - GameRant, "Viral Wall-Punching Game Already Has Roblox Clones" —