Among Us: The Undead Meme

August 2020. This was when it all began. In other words, this was when the word ‘sus’ became more popular than any other word on the internet. From playing the game with your friends in discord calls to making sus references in our daily lives, Among Us has truly deserved a spot in the collection of Undead Memes.

As many of us are aware, COVID turned our world into a digital one where most of our work, entertainment, and social interactions are online. People were depressed by the fact that they weren’t able to go out to eat or hang out with their friends due to quarantine. The world needed something that had both the aspects of entertainment and social interactions. The world needed Among Us: an online party game where people can play with their friends or random people to use teamwork and betrayal to win the game. Among us was the number 1 game on streaming platforms including Twitch and Youtube because it was such an easy game to play with your friends. However, Among Us started losing players as more people got out of quarantine.

Even if the game started dying, the memes continued. The word ‘sus’ became more popular than its original form ‘suspicious’ to the point that people forgot that sus was actually an informal word. Sus became a word that people started using daily even in academic essays and casual conversations. From my experience, I used the word sus so much in my English literature essays that my teacher had to point out to me that the word sus is an informal word and that I technically shouldn’t be using that word in my essays. So, I did the most logical thing to do in that situation and continued to write sus in my essays even in my AP Literature Exam. In between friends, it was way worse or should I say better. We would point out any words or signs that might be a reference to Among Us. When we were reading a book, a word or two would come up that implied imposter and we would awkwardly stare at each other before we started laughing out loud. But who can blame us?

At the end of the day, I realized two things. First is that even a dead game like Among Us can keep its legacy of memes and help bring joy and entertainment in our daily lives. And second, we should take any opportunity we can to enjoy our lives because it is these little memories that build our hall of joyful memories.