Welcome to Gag City: Unpacking the meme that’s taken over Gay Twitter™—and beyond

We hope you packed a pink wig because, the next stop? It’s Gag City—and we’re approaching fast!

If you’ve been on The Social Media Platform Formerly Known As Twitter in the past few days, chances are you’ve been inundated with images of a sparkling pink metropolis known as Gag City, a futuristic urban paradise where everything’s lit with neon and your favorite pop divas roam the streets. In other words, it’s the city of every gay’s dreams!

Naturally, you might be wondering: What is this place? Why is this place? And, how soon can I get there?

Well, it all started—as most things do—with Nicki Minaj.

Earlier this year, the Queen Of Rap shared the album art for her long-awaited album, Pink Friday 2, featuring a spotless pink subway car riding on cotton candy-colored clouds en route to a busy skyline.

This fantasy place quickly became dubbed Gag City by Minaj’s voracious stan community, widely known as Barbz, and it wasn’t long before the icon herself had adopted the term, using it to drum up anticipation for the album.

When Pink Friday 2‘s original November release date came and went, Minaj shared the album was delayed until December 8—her birthday—and the longer wait only made fans more eager. Perhaps out of a mix of unbridled excitement and boredom, the Barbz began using AI tools to create images of Gag City and sharing them across the internet.

Now, with the album’s release (hopefully!) imminent, the Gag City meme has saturated the culture—so much so that even random brands like Wheat Thins and Mattress Firm are chiming in. Practically our entire timeline is pink!

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The Barbz have always been a *pauses to choose next words carefully* resourceful bunch, so it tracks that they’d find a way to create a visual manifestation of their hyper-engaged community. And there’s quite a bit of overlap in the Venn Diagram of Barbz and Gay Twitter (it might even just be a circle!), meaning Gag City is certainly LGBTQ+ friendly.

With that in mind, we’ve collected some of our favorite Gag City tweets—the funniest, the strangest, and the gayest—below. So, take a look at some of the city’s most notable places and faces and start planning your visit!

Roll out that pink carpet, because all of the internet’s favorite celebs are touching down in Gag City:

Well… not all of them.

Despite its star-studded population, Gag City still is just a city like any other. For instance, even its billboards and subways can’t escape the omnipresent Shen Yun ads:

… And it’s not without some issues of its own:

But ultimately, it’s a great place to be—a fantastic arts and entertainment hub, with its own Drag Race franchise, to boot!

And don’t leave town without stopping by the world famous Onika Burger joint! (If you need an explainer for that meme, well… that’s a whole other article.)

Happy Pink Friday, one and all!

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