Many have sought it out, doing whatever it took to taste a fragment of the crowning glory. A few have risen to the occasion, experiencing an utter change to their constitution after surmounting the cutthroat competition. And those who have already inherited it claimed that the transformation was essential for maintaining the elusive commodity.

While reputation is subjective, some experts regard it highly, describing it as: “like worth a lot, like for real.” More coveted than food dollars or in-person classes? Perhaps. A few popular Instagram accounts believe so.

The demand for internet clout these days is at an all-time high, and everyone wants a piece. When students returned to campus for the spring semester, so did the barrage of Wake Forest specific memes. Established “meme connoisseurs” like @fake_worest and @downbadfrank (formerly hailed as @farrellhallfrank) as well as the relatively newer accounts of @wakeforrestmemes and @redcupwake all contributed to this campus meme culture frenzy. These newer accounts, in particular, have also gained rapid popularity with both WFM and RedCup floating above 1100 followers.

Most notably — Fake Worest, the oldest and most celebrated account with 8,524 followers — provided its audience with witty and satirical remarks on recent administrative shortcomings (to put it nicely) regarding COVID-19 as well as with the usual proclivity to champion Greek stereotypes.

In October, Lord Worest, as they have requested to be called, posted a two-minute video from the celebrity-fan video-sharing website Cameo featuring “well-known,” actor Johnny Sins. Let’s just say that this $109 masterclass imparted more wisdom on the student population than any education 77 grand could buy.

As is the case with any competition, rivalry grows, words are said and subtweets are thrown. Back on Dec. 23, Fake Worest uploaded an “In Memoriam” video showing the various causes of death of many second-rate meme accounts. Sarah McLachlan’s “Angel” appropriately accompanied the post. The two-and-a-half minute montage featured inactive accounts like @prohumemeitate, @wfustarterpacks and @wfugeeds, tactically belittled its current competitors. When asked if they were worried about potential threats to the throne from RedCup or Frank, Worest simply responded: “lol not really.”

Two days prior to the virtual funeral service, Farrell Hall Frank wistfully rebranded his account as “Down Bad Frank” in an attempt to widen his audience from the elite group of Business School students. Since the bold transition, Frank said he initially lost followers, but then “recouped his losses,” and gained about 1,000 followers unassociated with the university.

“I graduated recently and I didn’t want to be the washed-up graduate posting Wake Forest specific memes. Like that’s just lame no matter how you put it,” claimed Frank. “When [the account] farrellhallfrank dissolved, it left a vacuum in the Wake Forest meme page [universe]. It’s like when the Empire crumbled in Star Wars. And I was the meme game’s Darth Vader.”

Yet, one of those accounts that superseded the power rankings was Red Cup Wake, which was in an infantile stage during the Farrell Hall Frank era. Since then, the account has garnered over 1,700 followers and taken a new approach to fan engagement as compared to other accounts. Red Cup partnered with local brands such as Yamas and Wake Wear for giveaways and removed the mystique of anonymity often associated with running a popular account. Sophomores Amy Foley, Hanna Vascancello and Johnathan Gharib all contribute to posting memes and original videos across Instagram, TikTok and Twitter.

On March 1, Red Cup posted a picture of the OGB’s Hot List from the previous week, in which the Life editors ranked the top-ten Wake Forest related meme accounts, along with mentioning @fake_worest. Taking the top spot was @wfuniversity, the official university account, due to the hilarious content that the administration was putting out daily concerning ZSR being a COVID-19 hotspot and Greek life’s innocence regarding outbreak origins. Personally, there was so much more that made me chuckle, but I have a word limit.

The silver medal went to Red Cup, in which Foley said, “I connected that article back to Fake Worest because, at the beginning of the semester, they posted about us [saying we would] not last that long. I’m proud of how far we have come.”

Down Bad Frank earned the bronze medal while Wake Forrest Memes, the meme page which primarily caters to the freshmen, landed in the No. 5 slot. Multiple inactive accounts, along with the two-week-old @wakeforestvirgins account, were still ranked ahead of Fake Worest, who rounded out the list at numero diez. Fake Worest called this list “a total joke” and “as loaded as GreekRank ratings.”

These comments have been met with mixed reviews. Wake Forrest Memes agrees with Fake Worest’s analysis saying that “they do not belong at the bottom [of the list] at all. Even though Red Cup is rising fast, they are still the top dawg.” They appreciated Red Cup and Fake Worest’s brief squabble but noted that it quickly fizzled out due to lack of responses.

“I completely support the disrespect Fake Worest gets because we have beef and that has nothing to with the fact that one of their administrators broke my heart last year. The smaller accounts should continue to poke the bear. What the [expletive] are they gonna do – make a meme about you?” Frank asks.

“Fake Worest has posted whack content for a while and they deserve the competition. Now, whether the content these new pages are posting is any good … that’s an entirely different story,” he adds.

Lastly, the 137 follower page WFVirgins, a “community that seeks to promote abstinence and virginity,” seems to have gotten their account inspiration from more popular @byuvirgin and @uncvirginity, accounts that straddle the line of seriousness and facetiousness. In a statement recently released exclusively to the OGB, the group states “it is clear that Big Meme at this school has gotten lazy after blowing up … we asked ourselves, ‘would it be that hard to make funny AND original content about the school?’ I think our page speaks for itself.”