The Kermit Lipton Tea Meme, Explained

In this age of texting and trolling the internet, sometimes the easiest way to share your thoughts or feelings is with a meme. From Bad Luck Brian to the confused math lady to Drake Hotline Bling, there is a meme for every occasion.

Even big brand names like Pepsi have joined in the meme-sharing fun. While promoting its zero sugar drink, Pepsi made use of the distracted boyfriend meme to paint itself as a much more attractive option (the hot girl walking by) than the Coke zero sugar drink (the girlfriend).

Because memes are so prevalent in online communication, they can help express universal feelings towards a situation. Whether it's a Gordon Ramsay photo with a ridiculous insult (Film Daily has a hilarious compilation) or an "expectations versus reality" comparison to show the struggles of cooking, memes allow us to relate and communicate.

Of course, no discussion of memes would be complete without the mention of the Kermit meme. Not the Kermit/evil Kermit meme, not the frustrated driver Kermit. Kermit sipping his tea. You know the one. 

Kermit drinking tea is perhaps his most viral form. According to Bustle, this particular meme started picking up steam back in June 2014 with the tag #NoneOfMyBusiness. As you can glean from the tag, the Kermit tea meme came to be the perfect reaction for silently judging others' decisions. Tea, after all, is today's slang for gossip, so this Kermit meme is the very picture of judgement.

But why Lipton tea specifically? It's actually as simple as an advertising campaign. In 2014, Lipton and the Muppets collaborated, and thus, we were blessed with Kermit drinking tea (after Lipton tea saves Miss Piggy's dinner party, Bustle says).

It's uncertain what type of tea Kermit is drinking, but Lipton offers a wide range for him to sample. We can only hope that he has chosen a healthier tea, like black tea or oolong tea. The internet needs Kermit and his memes to stick around for a long time.