First, screw you for assuming it's an ego thing. Second, I don't entirely disagree with you.
Everyone and their mother has made that joke at least once after writing a somewhat long text. You're not any more original or any less of a "hivemind" than the peoples you're talking about in this paragraph.
There's a reason why I made a distinction for "references." I've been in communities that are literally dedicated to spamming the same thing verbatim, and I find them freaking hilarious. r/AnarchyChess was literally spamming "en passant," "holy hell," and "pipi" for months. r/tomorrow spams "Celeste, a hidden gem." Hell, I still giggle every time I see a picture of a crewmate. Those are funny because they're overused to the point where they're absurd.
"Thanks for coming to my TED talk" is a much weaker version of that. I don't see it used as a joke as much as I see it used as a phrase to indicate that a rant is over. I don't see how it's different from "Bob's your uncle" or "pushing the needle forward." All 3 of those phrases mean nothing to me when taken literally, but I (and probably most people) use those as synonyms for long and detailed explanations.
I don't see how emojis can do the same in an effective manner outside of a few commonly used ones, and I don't see how "bro [observation] 💀😭" can be considered absurd or can be changed enough to feel fresh or original. I'd literally be more okay if people repeated "bro [observation #1] 💀😭" because at least it feels like there is some joke or reference that I'm not getting.
First, screw you for assuming it's an ego thing. Second, I don't entirely disagree with you.
There's a reason why I made a distinction for "references." I've been in communities that are literally dedicated to spamming the same thing verbatim, and I find them freaking hilarious. r/AnarchyChess was literally spamming "en passant," "holy hell," and "pipi" for months. r/tomorrow spams "Celeste, a hidden gem." Hell, I still giggle every time I see a picture of a crewmate. Those are funny because they're overused to the point where they're absurd.
"Thanks for coming to my TED talk" is a much weaker version of that. I don't see it used as a joke as much as I see it used as a phrase to indicate that a rant is over. I don't see how it's different from "Bob's your uncle" or "pushing the needle forward." All 3 of those phrases mean nothing to me when taken literally, but I (and probably most people) use those as synonyms for long and detailed explanations.
I don't see how emojis can do the same in an effective manner outside of a few commonly used ones, and I don't see how "bro [observation] 💀😭" can be considered absurd or can be changed enough to feel fresh or original. I'd literally be more okay if people repeated "bro [observation #1] 💀😭" because at least it feels like there is some joke or reference that I'm not getting.