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Excuse Me? Joey Reacts To RFK Jr Brain Tapeworm News

This is a two-panel reaction meme that uses the classic Joey Tribbiani reaction format from the sitcom *Friends*. The first panel shows a snippet of a 2024 PBS news article that explains politician Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was found to have a pork tapeworm larva lodged in his brain (after doctors initially suspected a brain tumor), paired with an image of Joey smiling smugly. The second panel shows the next part of the article, which reveals that this tapeworm infection (neurocysticercosis) is not caused directly by eating pork, but instead by consuming tapeworm eggs from the feces of an already infected human. This unexpected, unappetizing reveal is paired with an image of Joey looking shocked and confused. The humor comes from subverting the common assumption about how the infection is contracted, with the gross twist eliciting the shocked reaction.
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PBS: Did a tapeworm really eat part of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s brain? 11 Mai 2024 — Doctors initially suspected that he had a brain tumor, but it turned out to be a parasite infection — specifically, a pork tapeworm larva lodged in his brain. Key Details About Brain-Eating Tapeworm (Neurocysticercosis) • Cause: The infection is not directly from eating pork, but from consuming Taenia solium eggs passed in the feces of a human with a tapeworm infection.

Overview

This is a two-panel reaction meme that uses the classic Joey Tribbiani reaction format from the sitcom Friends. The first panel shows a snippet of a 2024 PBS news article that explains politician Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was found to have a pork tapeworm larva lodged in his brain (after doctors initially suspected a brain tumor), paired with an image of Joey smiling smugly. The second panel shows the next part of the article, which reveals that this tapeworm infection (neurocysticercosis) is not caused directly by eating pork, but instead by consuming tapeworm eggs from the feces of an already infected human. This unexpected, unappetizing reveal is paired with an image of Joey looking shocked and confused. The humor comes from subverting the common assumption about how the infection is contracted, with the gross twist eliciting the shocked reaction.

Origin notes

This is a user-created meme originally posted to Reddit's r/meme community, as indicated by the source information. It remixes the popular two-panel Joey Tribbiani reaction meme template from the classic sitcom Friends, combining it with a real May 2024 PBS news article about Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s past brain infection.

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