Aaaaand It's Gone
Where it came from
From the 2009 South Park episode "Margaritaville," where Randy Marsh deposits money at the bank, gets told "and it’s gone," and watches his savings evaporate in roughly four seconds flat. It landed mid-recession and people have been quoting that teller ever since.
The setup is always the same: someone has a thing, they're feeling good about the thing, they put a little faith in the thing — and then the bank teller waves his hand and goes "aaaaand it's gone." No buildup, no warning. One frame you have it, the next frame you're staring at an empty counter.
It's the meme of choice for anything that disappears faster than it has any right to. Paycheck hits the account, rent comes out, aaaaand it's gone. You finally save up for something nice, crypto does a little dive, aaaaand it's gone. You type out a perfect paragraph, the app crashes before you hit send, aaaaand it's gone. The teller's complete indifference is the whole bit — he's seen this a thousand times and he is not going to pretend to care.
What's wild is how well it aged. It came out of a recession episode and just… kept being relevant, because money continues to vanish and South Park refuses to die. Still gets dropped in comment sections the second anyone mentions losing something. Some skeletons stay buried; this teller does not.
Search interest, over time
↳ data courtesy of google trends
