Madonna remains a legend for her music. She is an icon in the industry.
Fans have praised her for her good takes on current events and weathered her truly cringe moments, too.
But Madonna’s latest post has some people a little … confused. It might be good news.
Did Madonna just come out as gay?
We will admit, Madonna coming out as gay in a TikTok meme was not on our 2022 bingo sheet.
On Sunday, October 9, the living legend took to her TikTok account, holding a pair of large, magenta panties.
As music played, the text across her screen read “If I miss, I’m Gay!”
We will explain the meme format later, we promise.
The camera angle of the TikTok video then adjusts, giving us an approximate profile view of Madonna.
With one hand on her hip, she raises the other arm, preparing to hurl the panties towards an initially unclear destination.
Madonna hurls the undergarment through the air, where it lands on a clean marble floor.
It does not, notably, land in the metal bin — its apparent goalpost.
Having fallen short (literally) of its destination, it seems that the underwear is telling us something.
We then see Madonna face the camera, seemingly giving a one-armed shrug.
“If I miss, I’m Gay!” continues to show on screen throughout.
The video appears to very plainly be Madonna coming out — as gay or, as an umbrella term, as bisexual or another part of the LGBTQ+ community.
We could not resist converting this moment into a GIF.
Now, we promised an explanation.
This will also include detailing why some people are unsure if Madonna is genuinely coming out.
“If I miss,” contingency memes are much older than TikTok.
Their usual purpose is to reveal information, such as announcing news about a college acceptance or a graduation.
And yes, many people have used it to come out as gay or bisexual over the years.
Normally, just like with the conceptually similar “the floor is” meme, one states a premise.
Then, whether or not the premise is true, one illustrates the answer by missing or not missing.
This is a video, so it’s not like you have to leave it up to chance. You can just re-record it until you get it right.
Obviously, this means that someone posting “If I miss, I didn’t get into Duke” will deliberately not miss in order to share their good news.
Madonna’s good news came in the form of panties on the floor.
But … is she deliberately coming out? It looks like it, but some fans want clarity before they celebrate.
In the spring of 2022, Misha Collins fairly directly stated that he was bisexual during an interview with fans.
It took him days to issue a public clarification that he had somehow, astonishingly, misspoken.
Everyone is in charge of their own labels and it is entirely possible to misspeak. But this sort of thing helps people to understand why fans see any ambivalence as cause for doubt.
For example, sometimes this sort of meme ends up confusing people.
Not everyone understands meme formats intuitively. We saw this several years ago, during the “Tide Pod challenge” era.
Most of the “pod eating” videos were fake — displays of editing and sleight-of-hand. Then a few people, eager for clout, tried to imitate these videos. The results were, literally, toxic.
So it is conceivable that Madonna and perhaps others might misinterpret “If I miss” as a game rather than an announcement.
Instead of deliberately hitting or missing to tell a story, they might let the chips (and underwear) fall where they may.
One could imagine a sometimes-out-of-touch woman in her sixties grasping the nuance of a TikTok meme format.
That said, Madonna has people around her who are younger. And she has been an icon to the LGBTQ+ community for decades.
Some people come out at older ages. One of the inspiration for A League of Their Own recently came out as a lesbian at 95 years old.
If Madonna is sharing this wonderful news — which does seem likely — then congratulations are in order. And if not, no harm done, but maybe double-check with someone a couple of decades younger if you’re famous and doing a meme.
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