GameStop stock surge: Reddit sends shares up, jokes and memes follow

It sounds like an Onion article. A group of Reddit users decided to play the market and push up the stock value of GameStop, a struggling video game retailer, taking on Wall Street short sellers in the process. But this is no Onion article. The plan worked.

Experts warn it won’t last, but as of Wednesday, the stock was still hitting new highs. “We’re seeing a phenomenon that I have never seen,” Jim Cramer, a Wall Street commentator on CNBC and a former hedge fund manager, said during a segment Monday.

Real money is on the line for many people. But still, we’re talking about GameStop, the dumpy mall video game store chain that made headlines early in the pandemic for claiming its stores were essential and needed to stay open. So you knew there were going to be jokes and memes surrounding the stock surge.

Yellen ‘monitoring the situation’

Some jokes circled around the fact that President Joe Biden’s press secretary said the administration, including new Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, is aware of the news.

“Our team, including Secretary Yellen, is of course monitoring the situation,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said. “It’s a good reminder that the stock market, though, isn’t the only measure of health of our economy.”

Of course, people had to react to the idea of the president and his team focusing on GameStop.

“We will let the American people know when GameStop discounts a Legend of Zelda chess set in a dented box,” said one Twitter user.

Wrote another, “My sources now telling me Biden is monitoring the GameStop situation and contemplating picking up a used copy of Crackdown 3 for $7.”

Sell, sell, sell

There were plenty of other elements of the story to poke fun at, including GameStop’s reputation for paying very little for used video games. Wrote one, “Wow GameStop! I got your stock and now it’s over $330! GameStop: I’ll give you $12 for it.”

Wrote another, “I’m a GameStop trader too but I must be doing something wrong… I gave them my xBox, controller, and all my games and all I got was a $15 gift card.”

(That last one makes more sense if you remember the Area 51 raid.)

Stocking up

And many admitted stock market manipulations weren’t exactly their superpower, but they were still plenty entertained by the situation.

“I have no idea what this GameStop thing is but I plan on playing a lot of video games to find out,” wrote one Twitter user. 

Wrote another, “OK, explain this GameStop story to me like I’m an idiot: They’re plumbers who race Go Karts against a dinosaur and a princess?”

Like a video game with multiple stages, the GameStop saga is continuing, so stay tuned.