As well as being an award-winning actress and incisive comedian, Ayo Edebiri is a woman online – chronically so, some might say. Her now-defunct Twitter profile was practically a public stream-of-consciousness in 2019. Her legendary Letterboxd account reviewed movies in a parlance only accessible to those who’ve racked up double-digit screen time. She invented the phrase “I’m simply too seated”. So this week, when I came across an image of Edebiri pounding the pavement in a Björk Debut long sleeve, I immediately knew what she was trying to tell me. While some saw an actor paying homage to a fellow artist, I saw the truth: Ayo Edebiri was harnessing the power of meme culture to tell us how she really feels.

If you still don’t know what I’m talking about, that’s actually a good thing: congratulations on being a normal person. The rest of you, however, will know that Björk’s Debut album cover has been the subject of memes for years – decades even. From the ancient style of Impact text on image macros to parallels with Britney Spears, and now Gen Z hitting their very own Björk poses on TikTok, the coy album cover, featuring the Icelandic singer with hands clasped over her mouth, has had an extremely long shelf life. Because of this, I refuse to believe that Edebiri, as online as she is, didn’t have those memes in mind when pulling this piece. Maybe evidence that, despite deleting her Letterboxd and Twitter, she’s got a secret burner and is keeping tabs on all of us?

Over time, hitting the Björk Debut pose evolved to mean many things: bashfulness, indifference, contemplation, calm. More recently, however, the memes have taken on a tone of despair. “Me hitting the björk debut pose when I’m stressed out in the slightest,” wrote one user on TikTok, clasping their hands to their mouth. “When your life is in shambles so you lowkey hit the björk debut pose,” said another. “When america is so cooked you gotta hit Björk’s debut pose,” wrote a third. Yes, when I saw that t-shirt I knew exactly what Edebiri was trying to say, i.e. can we talk about the political and economic state of the world right now?? Clearly, all she can do in the face of such horrors is clasp her hands to her mouth and stare blankly into space. When you look at this image, do not be fooled by her megawatt smile and jaunty gait – this is a woman in the throes of abject misery. Or maybe she just really likes Björk.