If you’ve seen a popular tweet about dogecoin， the volatile digital currency based on a meme about a shiba inu， recently， there’s a decent chance that the official Slim Jim Twitter account will have a top reply — or have authored the tweet itself．

最近，如果你看到一条关于狗狗币（一种波动较大的数字货币，得名于一张日本柴犬的表情包）的热门推文，那么Slim Jim的官方推特账户很有可能在评论区的顶部——或者该推文本身就是它自己撰写的。

Slim Jim — yes， the company that sells beef jerky snacks — has made dogecoin central to its recent marketing and social media efforts． And since the company started tweeting about the coin in February， its Twitter presence has grown fivefold， according to Lanie Friedman， a spokeswoman for Slim Jim parent company Conagra Brands （she did not answer whether actual sales have also increased）．

Slim Jim——是的，就是那家销售牛肉干零食的公司——已经将狗狗币作为其近期营销和社交媒体工作的核心。Slim Jim的母公司Conagra Brands的女发言人蕾妮·弗里德曼说，自从该公司2月份开始在Twitter上发布有关狗狗币的消息以来，其在Twitter上的影响力已经增长了五倍（她没有回答实际销售额是否也有所增长）。

You’d be forgiven for not immediately understanding the marketing connection between a cryptocurrency and a beef jerky purveyor． But the dynamic is， to my mind， a perfect encapsulation of the current meme economy： Take some abstract， niche financial product like a joke cryptocurrency， hype it up on social media to the point that thousands of posters are churning out and engaging with free content about it and eventually exchange that hype for tangible cash．

如果你没有立即理解加密货币和牛肉干供应商之间的营销联系，这是可以理解的。但是在我看来，这种动态是对当前表情包经济的完美缩影：拿一些抽象的、小众的金融产品（比如搞笑加密代币）在社交媒体上大肆宣传，让成千上万的发帖者大量生产免费的内容并与之互动，最终将这种炒作换成有形的现金。

The more absurd the product， and the more ironic and bombastic the discourse around it， the better． And Slim Jim has zeroed in on one of the weirdest and most popular out there， deeming its strategy a “memes and meats″ approach to posting， says Friedman． The social media campaign is not related to the value of dogecoin， she says； rather it works because both companies are “rooted in meme culture” and share “inclusive， positive” communities online．

产品越荒谬，围绕它的讨论越具有讽刺性和浮夸性，效果就越好。弗里德曼说，Slim Jim瞄准的就是最怪异、最受欢迎的一种产品，将其策略视为“梗和肉”的发帖方式。她表示，社交媒体活动与狗狗币的价值无关；相反，它之所以有效，是因为这两家公司都“植根于梗文化”，共享“包容、积极”的在线社群。

For its part， dogecoin， which was created in 2013 as a parody of bitcoin， has been trading at record levels these past few weeks thanks， primarily， to the antics of billionaire memelord Elon Musk， according to Mike Bucella， general partner at BlockTower Capital． No joke： Its market capitalization of over $63 billion， as of Wednesday， is bigger than three-quarters of the companies in the S&P 500．

狗狗币于2013年创立，是对比特币的模仿。BlockTower 资本（一家加密资产资公司--译者注）的普通合伙人迈克·比塞拉表示，过去几周，狗狗币的价格达到了创纪录的水平，这主要归功于亿万富翁埃隆·马斯克这个“梗王”滑稽的行为。这可不是开玩笑：截至周三（5月12日--译者注），它的市值超过630亿美元，超过了标准普尔500指数中四分之三的公司。

How can that be？ A major driver of the meme economy is the desire to “stick it” to the establishment， says Avi Felman， head of trading at BlockTower Capital， noting that dogecoin has a lot in common with the GameStop rally from earlier this year． If the price of something like bitcoin can reach $60，000， or if the government can print trillions of dollars at once， people start questioning what is actually real， he says．

这是怎么回事？BlockTower资本的交易主管阿维·费尔曼表示，“梗经济”的一个主要驱动力是人们对权威的蔑视。他指出，狗狗币与今年早些时候的游戏驿站（的股票--译者注）反弹有很多相似之处。他说，如果比特币这种东西的价格可以达到6万美元，或者政府可以一次性印出数万亿美元，人们就会开始质疑什么才是真正的真实。

“If the richest man in the world is tweeting about a coin named after a dog， why can’t it be real？” says Felman， referring to Musk， who has claimed the title of world’s richest person a few times．

“如果说这个世界的有钱人正在发一条关于用狗命名的货币的推文，为什么它不能是真实的呢？”费尔曼说，他指的是马斯克。马斯克曾几次成为世界上最富有的人。

It all comes down to the community dogecoin fosters， Billy Markus， the software engineer who co-created the coin， writes in an email to CNBC Make It．

这一切都取决于狗狗币所培育的社区，软件工程师比利·马库斯在给美国消费者新闻与商业频道Make It专栏的电子邮件中写道。

“The crypto community can be pretty elitist and not very inclusive， and we wanted to make a community that was more fun， lighthearted and inclusive，” Markus writes． “It worked， and is why the dogecoin community consistently maintains a presence．”

“加密社区可能是非常精英化的，不具有很强的包容性，我们希望打造一个更有趣、更轻松、更包容的社区，”马库斯写道，“它起作用了，这也是狗狗币社区一直存在的原因。”

It’s not just “the absurdity of Dog Money，” he adds， pointing to this YouTube video． “There’s something pure about it too．”

他补充说，这不只是“狗狗钱的荒谬”，他指着这个YouTube视频补充道， “它也有一些纯粹的东西。”

Dogecoin to the moon

狗狗币去月球

Slim Jim’s embrace of dogecoin is just one example of the weirdness of the modern meme economy． The aforementioned GameStop saga of yore is another， as is a 23-year-old software developer making a nonfungible token （NFT） out of “cheugy，” the buzzy word she coined that loosely translates to “basic” and is a meme in its own right．

Slim Jim对狗狗币的接纳只是怪异的现代“梗经济”的一个例子。之前提到的游戏驿站的昔日传奇是另一个例子，还有23岁的软件开发者用“cheugy”（她创造的流行词，大致可以翻译为“基本”，这本身就是一种梗）制作了不可替代的代币（NFT）。

If you’re confused about what any of those words mean， you’re not alone． The meme economy has spawned its own vocabulary， comprised of NFTs （unique， digital assets） and stonks （stocks） that you hodl （hold） in hopes of going to the moon （benefiting from a rapid and enduring increase in price）． It’s all part of the joke， showing that the investors don’t take any of this too seriously． Except that they do， of course — they’re in it to make money， not just memes．

如果你对这些词的意思感到困惑，你不是一个人。梗经济催生出了自己的词汇表，包括NFT（独特的数字资产）和stonks（股票）——你hodl（持有）这些股票，希望能登上月球（得益于价格的持续快速增长）。这都是玩笑的一部分，表明投资者并没有把这些事情太当真。当然，除非他们是为了赚钱，而不仅仅是为了玩梗。

Still， snapping up 100 shares of a meme stonk in the hopes that it will continue to rise in tandem with its Reddit upvotes is not a money-making strategy that will work for most people long term． Some people are watching their holdings grow， but where there is a crush of enthusiastic investors trying to cash in on a crypto craze， there will be losers．

尽管如此，抢购100股“梗票”（meme stonk），并希望它会随着Reddit上的点赞继续增长，对大多数人来说并不是一个长期有效的赚钱策略。有些人看着自己的持仓增加，但如果有一群热情的投资者试图从加密货币热潮中获利时，就会有输家。

“My guess is that [the rally] won’t last， especially for something like dogecoin which was never meant to be a payment system or a store of value，” Adam Zadikoff， COO of BRD， a crypto wallet that boasts more than 7 million users， told my colleague Nicolas Vega． “Yes， you can make a quick buck if you time it right， but timing the market is a terrible thing to try to do． It does not work．”

BRD的首席运营官亚当·扎迪科夫告诉我的同事尼古拉斯·维加：“我猜（公众热情）不会持续太久，尤其是像狗狗币这样的东西，它从来就不是一种支付系统或价值存储手段。”BRD是一种拥有700多万用户的加密货币钱包。“是的，如果你把握好时机，你可以很快赚到钱，但把握好市场时机是一件可怕的事情。这行不通。”

But with trading more affordable and accessible than ever， and billionaires using their massive platforms to push their favorite stocks and cryptocurrencies， BlockTower’s Felman says the meme economy is just starting to take off． Some investors may make it to the moon．

但随着加密货币的交易比以往任何时候都更便宜、更容易实现，亿万富翁们也在利用他们的大型平台来推广他们喜爱的股票和加密货币，BlockTower的费尔曼表示，梗经济才刚刚起步。一些投资者可能确实能靠玩梗登上月球。