The First Meme

Chapter 4

Tina and Chase squint in confusion. Never before have they heard of Lazytown. Shrek, on the contrary, knew of this land. This was not the first time visiting. "Lazytown?" Chase repeated. Stephenie nodded but before she could speak Shrek interrupted her. "Nothing special, they're all super healthy and boring," He faces Robbie. "We have met before, Robbie Rotten," He steps forward. "Oh yes, it's you," Robbie mutters. "What do you want?" "I need the shiny rock I gave you." "No, it's my shiny rock!" Robbie yells. "Give me the rock or I'll slice you into layers," Shrek warns, revealing a switchblade. Robbie squeaks and hides behind Sportacus. Sportacus approaches Shrek cautiously. "Calm down, Shrek no one has to be harmed. We're both kids shows," "Me kids show? How dare you, I am more than a kids show, I am a religion!" He roars. "Give me the gosh darn rock or Imma give this G show a new rating, and it won't be PG," "Robbie, give the man the rock," Stingy pleads. Stephenie and the other weird puppets nod. Eventually, Robbie relents and gives Shrek a small green rock. Chase and Tina hold hands, after the frightful moment, but Tina swiftly withdrawals hers and scoots away. He is disappointed, but Chase doesn't give up easily. "Now we can leave," Shrek smirks and begins to walk on. "Onward," "That was easy," Chase sighs. They begin to leave town "It won't get any easier," Shrek says. "How do we leave?" Tina rolls her eyes. She is convinced this is all a dream, one she cannot wait to awake from. Shrek halts and faces them. "We all must rehearse the epic meme from this land," "Which is?" Tina pushes. Chase, a very uncultured wizard, decides to ask about memes. "What is a meme?" Shrek gasps and almost drops the Time Stone. "What?" "What's a meme?" Chase repeats. "A meme is an idea, behavior, or style that spreads by means of imitation from person to person within a culture and often carries symbolic meaning representing a particular phenomenon or theme. It's short for mimeme." Chase nods content with the answer. "Ok, so do you know which meme we need?" "Of course," Shrek begins. "You gotta do the cooking by the book," "What?" Tina frowns. "The first part, You gotta do the cooking by the book," "You gotta do the cooking by the book," Chase and Tina say in unison. "You know you can't be lazy," Shrek continues. Tina and Chase repeat as said. "There you go, just sing that over and over again," "You gotta do the cooking by the book, you know you can be lazy," The trio sing off-key and out of sync. After a minute, the second portal appears in its beautiful ocean hue.