It would become an Instagram post that could not be egg-nored. On the evening of Friday, Jan. 4, an Englishman or woman was "doing dry," slang for abstaining from alcohol for a month, and reading articles online when they came upon one discussing the top 20 Instagram posts of 2018. That's when inspiration struck.
"I thought it would be an interesting experiment to try and beat the record with something as basic as possible," said Eugene Egg, the mysterious person behind the egg post who declined to share their real identity over email. "Which led to me deciding on the egg. I guess it’s also a comment on celebrity culture and how fragile and easily cracked it is (pun intended). But really I just thought it would be funny if something as simple as an egg could take the crown."
The post languished on Instagram initially until last weekend. As of Monday morning, the egg has surpassed 29 million likes by 11 a.m., making it the most popular post on the platform. The post eclipsed Kylie Jenner's birth announcement from Feb. 6, 2018 that previously held the record with 18 million likes.
"That the internet is amazing. But it wasn’t me that achieved it, it was the Egg Gang," Eugene Egg said over email. "Haha, no hard feelings Kylie. All's fair in love and war."
One man who is no stranger to viral fame is Robert Allam, better known as Reddit's top user gallowboob. Allam has amassed more than 26 million karma points, Reddit's internal mechanism of ranking content, since joining the site in Oct. 2014.
"It's been fascinating watching one of the biggest, 'famous,' media influencers today be overtaken by the shitposting meme masses," Allam told Forbes. "This is what the internet is all about. When and if the day comes where a random comedic meme cannot overtake one of the biggest social media sponsor money-pump in existence, we'll be able to say that the internet as we knew it is dead. Until that day comes we can rejoice in watching the organic noise echo louder than the money machines of our internet today."
So far the egg has captured the attention of the New York Times and CNN, among many other news organizations. Eugene Egg has a few ideas in store for the egg but for now is happy to bask in all the social media glory.
"It’s been a whirlwind week and I’ve just been running with it," they said.
