'My Fall Plans, the Delta Variant' Meme Explodes Across the Internet

A famous poet once said: "The best laid schemes of mice and men often go awry"—and now so has Twitter.

When the hopes for the summer of our lives had been dashed after a year and a half of lockdowns, restrictions and bad news continued, faith was pushed to fall 2021. Twitter however has little hope for even that now, with rising fears about the Delta variant's impact.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the more infectious Delta variant is currently the predominant strain of the coronavirus in the United States. Certain data shows that the Delta variant is almost twice as contagious as previous ones.

The CDC reported that two different studies from Canada and Scotland found that patients with the Delta variant were "more likely to be hospitalized than patients infected with Alpha or the original virus strains."

The good news is that the vaccines authorized for emergency use in the U.S. are proving "highly effective" at preventing severe disease and death, regardless of the variant, including Delta. Plus, breakthrough infections in vaccinated individuals occur much less often that infections in unvaccinated people, according to the CDC.

Still, the threat the Delta variant poses is enough to make a social media-wide meme out of it—but then again, what isn't.

Internet users have been taking on the classic two-image "reality vs. expectations" meme layout, adding a COVID twist instead.

"My fall plans," pairs with an image of hope, often taken from a movie or pop culture moment, while the "Delta variant" represents the thing that took it all away, referencing some of modern history's greatest downfalls.

Ellen DeGeneres' first takedown came in the form of Dakota Johnson. The actress refuted DeGeneres' claims that she didn't get an invite to her birthday party mid-interview. "Actually, no, that's not the truth, Ellen," she bluntly said. "Ask everybody. Ask Jonathan, your producer."

For fans of The Parent Trap, the way the Delta variant is coming for their fall plans is comparable to Hallie and Annie's schemes against Meredith Blake, their father's young wife-to-be.

Amanda Knox took the meme to extreme, referencing her wrongful imprisonment for the murder of her roommate in Italy. Knox shared a selfie she took on the way to her Perugia stay, and paired it with her version of the "Delta variant" —"Inarticulate Italian noises."

The way the iceberg crushed the plans of the Titanic needs no explaining.

In March 2001, a dove found itself in the wrong place, wrong time, when it flew in the direct line of baseball pitcher Randy Johnson pitching a ball. The dove's death has been viewed over 2 million times on YouTube.

Though technically, it was the broken rope that led to Leslie's death in Bridge to Terabithia.

Seeing a biscuit tin at a grandmother's house can only ever be a set-up for disappointment.

Another fictional death that just can't be handled—Macaulay Culkin as Thomas in 1991's My Girl.

2021 prom season might not have been ruined in Carrie fashion by COVID, but fall plans will if this meme is anything to go by.