"You Name It!" — The Gospel Origins of This Thanksgiving Meme – EpicPew

“You Name It!” — The Gospel Origins of This Thanksgiving Meme

If you’ve opened the Instagram explore page recently, then you have probably seen this meme making it’s rounds in the “humor” category:

View this post on Instagram

Praise the Lord saints! And Happy Sunday! Another genius mix by the genius himself, @remixgodsuede! Shoutout also to @daquan who started this Shirley Caesar meme! I got another one of these on the way. ——————– The Shirley Caesar video is an excerpt from a live performance of “Hold My Mule” which is LITERALLY an iconic standard in gospel music! Honestly, truly! ——————- #icomplexity #mashup #hoodclips #edits #followme #tagafriend #like4like #l4l #t4l #tags4likes #remixgodsuede #geekedupchallenge #hitdemfolks #share #thanksgiving #thanksgivingbreak #family #turkey #blessed #love #shirleycaesar #holdmymule #shirleycaesarchallenge #unameitchallenge @chrisbrownofficial

A post shared by iComplexity (@_icomplexity) on

Sound familiar? That’s because it dates back in 2016 and went viral after being shared by popular meme and humor accounts such as @daquan and @worldstar.

But did you know that this bop has gospel origins? The hook is sampled from “Hold My Mule,” a gospel track by Grammy-winning artist Shirley Caesar.

Like most traditional gospel music, this song is a sermon with jazz instrumental embellishments and short bursts of sustained speech for emphasis. The “You Name It” challenge comes from the middle of the song, when Shirley lists off the abundance of produce and livestock in the field an old man is plowing in her story.

That clip was put in the context of your grandma’s response to “what’s for thanksgiving dinner?” as seen in the original meme below:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BMsU0VODxjE/

Enter DJ Suede, a musical artist who specializes in remixing anything from popular hip hop songs to viral videos. After hearing the potential behind this seasonal meme, @remixgodsuede quickly got to work on adding a beat.

 

Social media users quickly began filming themselves dancing to the remix and posting their clips under the hashtag #YouNameItChallenge. The trend caught so much attention that Shirley Caesar was invited on Wendy William’s show “Real Life Hot Topic” to give her take on the meme and provide some context to the original song.

 

Even after two years, variations of this meme are still making rounds on the ‘Gram, typically referencing current events and subjects that are relevant to the calendar year.

View this post on Instagram

.@michif12 made me do it. 🤷🏽‍♀️ #YouNameItChallenge #UNameItChallenge #thanksgiving #childishgambino

A post shared by Cyn City 🐼 (@cyncityonair) on

 

Celebrate today’s feast of St. Cecilia (patron of music) by bumpin’ this remix in the kitchen while you prepare the thanksgiving feast of… what was it again? Oh yeah.

Beans, greens, potatoes, tomatoes… you name it!