Menlo Park, CA – As the beginning of Ramadan draws closer, Muslims, friends of Muslims, and any associated variants brace for the flood of date puns usually expected this time of year. These puns promote themselves under the guise of memes, status updates, tweets, and any other bite-size content the internet can throw at us.
The date is an icon of Ramadan, and is the food item traditionally used to open the fast at sunset.
At her office desk in Topeka, KA, 31-year-old Layla Khan cleverly assembles her Ramadan message. Using a popular meme generator she uploads a picture of an anbarah date, and overlays the words: ‘Save the Date, Happy Ramadan!’ Upon uploading her creative piece to Facebook, Khan instantly receives 2 ‘likes’ followed by an ‘LOL.’ Her message, in combination with messages like hers will be seen by approximately 21.8 million users of the site.
It is estimated that 2.5 million Facebook users will upload similar messages before Saturday, which is the expected start of the holy month.
A woman walked up to me on the street and asked if I was looking for a date. Not for another 3 days! #RamadanCountdown #idontfollowisna
— Shaikh Khalid Mabuti (@shaikhmabuti) June 26, 2014
Social Media Analyst, Stacey Royce is monitoring social activities across Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and expects this year to be the busiest on record for the date pun.
“We’re going to see the date puns peak in circulation around Saturday, and should trickle off some time on Monday,” says Royce. “This year is definitely going to be the busiest we’ve seen thus far.”
Royce points out that because of market saturation, apathy to the pun will set in, and ‘likes’ and ‘favorites’ will fall-off quicker than last year.
“The average person can only laugh or chuckle at so many date puns.”
Experts also say that after the date puns subside, social media users can expect a wave of “Ramadan Breath” memes to follow.
Abdullah Kazi of Houston, TX plans to limit his exposure to date puns this year, as he is already frustrated by the over usage.
“I get it. Dates, Ramadan, it’s punny, but please cut it out… or I will find you and shove the pit of my date so far up your – so help me – wow this Ramadan will be tough,” says a trembling Kazi.
Experts will continue to monitor the situation.
