History & Meaning Of The Kermit Sipping Tea Meme
It's the meme to end all memes.
youtube As a long-time fan of The Muppets, nothing made me happier than seeing Kermit the frog being introduced to a whole new generation in the form of a meme: The Kermit tea meme.
Chances are, if you're a person who uses the internet and you have visited sites other than CNN or Boring News Dot Com, then you've visited a place where someone has either shared the Kermit tea meme or shared the Kermit tea GIF, pairing it with the hashtag #ButThatsNoneOfMyBusiness.
Either way, Kermit drinking tea has two different (but similar) slang meanings.
It can be used after dishing out an insult or pointing out something insane and ridiculous to put a sassy cap on your point. It can also be used to indicate that, while you have no intention of gossiping yourself, you're happy to sit back and let the "tea" (gossip) wash all over you.
History of the Kermit Sipping Tea Meme
The meme started to evolve in the early days of the year 2014. By now, it seems like such a long time ago!
By June of that year, Instagram feeds like "@kermitbelike" and "@thatsnoneofmybusinesstho" were already popularizing the meme in a major way.
Then, a hashtag began popping up as the meme grew in popularity. Tags like #kermitmemes and #butthatsnoneofmybusiness spread across the internet, and a Tumblr was created for memes on a large variety of subjects. Its popularity even spread to YouTube, with the now-deleted video gaining 100,000 views.
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Why is Kermit sipping tea?
The Kermit team meme originated from a Lipton Tea ad campaign featuring the Muppet, which means yes: Kermit drinks Lipton Tea.
The campaign first aired during the 2014 Academy Awards and encouraged people to "be more tea," which meant more kind.
The meme later went viral again in June 2016, not quite petering out like many viral memes.
When LeBron James, who was then playing for the Cleveland Cavaliers was spotted wearing an "Ultimate Warrior" t-shirt after winning the NBA championship, he also was sporting something peculiar: the Kermit sipping tea meme on his hat!
The next day, James's post went viral. And the internet did not disappoint.
Because it was during that same game that James was seen crying after the win, leading to the Crying LeBron meme. Good Morning America even discussed it on their show, calling it "tea lizard," and giving way to another popular hashtag.
The response from the internet went down in history as the biggest overreaction, with Twitter users making jabbing remarks towards the show. People were also quick to correct GMA, reminding us that a frog is an amphibian, and a lizard is a reptile. Come on, get it together, GMA!
What does 'spill the tea' mean?
For decades, women in the south would gather at tea parties where they would enjoy tea, sandwiches, desserts, and gossip by the bucketful. To "spill the tea," as such, became a parlance for engaging in gossip.
Later on, this phrase was adopted by the drag community.
In the book (and movie) Midnight in The Garden of Good and Evil, Lady Chablis (a transgender cabaret performer) refers to her gender identity as being "my T, my truth." (As is often the way with all amazing cool things from the LGBTQ world, straight people took a couple of decades and then decided to make this saying their own.)
Examples of Kermit Sipping Tea Memes
Now that you know what this meme means and where it comes from, it's time to indulge in some of the best Kermit tea memes that the internet has to provide.
If you're worried that the real Kermit might not approve of engaging in throwing some super-shade, take solace in the fact that the frog has been in love with Miss Piggy for decades, and you know that pig loves to dish the dirt with the best of them.
1. "Some of you have college degrees, but still confuse there, their, and they're. But that's none of my business tho."
2. "When you have a boyfriend, but still message me... but that's none of my business."
3. "You want tolerance and equality, but bash any group that doesn't agree with yours. But that's none of my business."
4. "People at the gym lifting phones more than weights, but that's none of my business."
5. "Y'all want to wear masks for coronavirus but won't wear condoms for STDS."
6. "You work out but ya before and after pic look like twins... But dats none of my business tho."
How do you draw Kermit sipping tea?
If you want to up your meme game, you can draw Kermit drinking tea yourself by following this step-by-step guide.
Rebecca Jane Stokes is a writer living in Brooklyn, New York with her cats, Batman and Margot. She's the Senior Editor of Pop Culture at Newsweek with a passion for lifestyle, geek news, and true crime.