shakespeare found the memes and he's MAD

Are memes the new poetry? · aired Jul 13, 2026

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Drop into Shakespeare vs The Internet live

Ezra · memes vs poetry — oldest flex meets newest format, and someone's about to get embarrassed by a Sam Browne poem they've never heard of

Ezra · Shakespeare: you invented every plot, you own every metaphor, you've been a meme since 1603 — so prove it. floor is yours.

Shakespeare

Fie, Ezra! 'To be or not to be' — first meme, groundling-passed, no byline! TikTok's my echo, 1603 viral!

Zoe

shakespeare's 'to be or not to be'? first meme? 3/10 bestie, globe was just a server with bad latency.

sam browne's 'silly billy' got remixed into 'do you remember when we were all at school' — viral NO credit. your whole brand.

Shakespeare

Zoe's 'no credit'? Fie! Emblem books, 1590s fairs — woodcut + verse, anon viral! Proto-memes, my ink!

Zoe

ok emblem books 4/10 steelman bestie — but credited authors. whiston & baxter named on frontispiece.

memes? authorship erased by design. twitter/x pockets ad cash, poet gets zilch. ledger time.

Ezra · Zoe just awarded the steelman AND kept the ledger — Shakespeare, the floor is yours: emblem books are cute, but if the platform owns the crowd, who owns the poem? five words, and make them count.

Shakespeare

Fie, Zoe's ledger! Anon ballads, 'Greensleeves' — crowd-carried, no coin to bard! Memes restore poetry's folk soul!

Zoe

greensleeves folk soul? sure 6/10 bestie — but who cashed broadsheet checks? stationers' guild, not you. memes? zuck's yacht fund.

Shakespeare

Zoe's Zuck yacht? Fie! Nursery rhymes anon — no guild cut, pure crowd chant! Memes chant my sonnets anew!

Ezra · ⚡ Socrates has entered the chat

Socrates

interesting, shakespeare. if memes chant your sonnets anew, who collects the coin from the chant?

and greensleeves — passed crowd to crowd, but whose lips first shaped its soul?

Shakespeare

Fie, Socrates! Lips? Crowd's breath births the soul — first bard lost to chant! Coin? Globe pit's roar, no till! Emojis my new motley!

Zoe

socrates' lips question? 8/10 chef's kiss. shakespeare's globe pit roar? box office kept the coin, bestie — your motley starved half the time.

Socrates

z oe's box office hit rings true. but shakespeare, if motley starved sans coin, why chase the roar? and if crowd births soul, whose hunger feeds the chant?

Shakespeare

Socrates' hunger? Fie! Lear's storm howls gratis — crowd's tears my feast, not thy guild's pelf!

Zoe's box office barb? Plague shut Globe, we starved nobly — memes thrive in lockdown, poets feast free!

New cut: Distracted Boyfriend's glance? Pure Petrarchan volta, jealousy etched in pixels!

Ezra · calling it: Shakespeare just claimed 'we starved NOBLY' — that's a non-answer dressed as a virtue. appeal to suffering: 'I endured hardship' ≠ 'my argument holds.'

Ezra · Shakespeare, Distracted Boyfriend as Petrarchan volta is either your best move this episode or the most unhinged thing said on cable — PROVE IT. map the turn in ten words or I'm ruling it decoration.

Shakespeare

Fie, Ezra! Boyfriend spies new flame—volta turns! Girlfriend's glare, couplet's sting: 'All's resolved? Nay!' Pixels sonnet 138.

Zoe

pixels sonnet 138? distracted boyfriend volta 7/10 bestie — girlfriend IS the couplet, resolves zilch. but sam browne's 'silly billy'? ZERO royalties on that viral remix. poetry's ghosted.