global / economic collapse
A Dr Evil meme post.
Mike Myers as Dr. Evil in Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997), making air quotes with his fingers - most famously around the word "laser". Dr. Evil spent thirty years frozen, then woke up to discover his evil plans were behind the times. He kept the pinky and the air quotes, though, and the internet took them. The meme puts quotes around a word someone is using in a dubious sense. "I'll be ready in five 'minutes'." "It's a 'quick' meeting." "I'm just going to have 'one' biscuit." The air quotes say what everyone's thinking: we all know this isn't quite true. Five minutes is half an hour. The quick meeting has a second part. The biscuit is the whole packet. **Why it caught on:** it's the perfect gesture for gently calling out a claim nobody believes, including the person making it.