The game Pong was created back in 1972 for arcades. The simplistic but fun multiplayer title is considered one of the most iconic video games by many, as a version of it came with many of the early home consoles in the late 70s and early 80s. Currently, Pong is trending on Twitter, but not for the reasons many may think.
Twitter trends can be a confusing place. Sometimes trends pop up with little to no explanation, but the result can be a fury of fun tweets by the community, with members of the community then attempting to play detective for why a word or phrase is suddenly being uttered by millions. In the case of Pong, the word is trending for various reasons.
The word "pong" is used in multiple phrases or ideas, including the popular game ping-pong, also called table tennis. One of the reasons that the word is trending is because an amazing video was posted of a young girl playing the sport at hypersonic speed. Extremely impressive, perhaps more so than the announcement of the Pong Quest RPG a few months ago that did not get Twitter trending this same way.
A tweet showing a rather delicious bowl of Boo Paht Pong Curry managed to bring in over a thousand likes. The crab and curry dish doesn't seem to be a cookable creation in a game like Cooking Mama, So as yummy as it looks, this would again be a non-video-game related Pong tweet.
With COVID-19 rocking the world of video games, entertainment, sports, and beyond, the coronavirus gets Twitter trending from time to time. One of the pong tweets seems to have taken off for an unfortunate reason. A college football quarterback participated in a video for his school, Ole Miss, in which he discusses how important it is to be safe and smart during these trying times.
However, one Twitter user responded by saying that they saw him and a large group of friends playing beer pong just a few days ago. Whether the story is real or not is up for debate, but this again is one of the reasons "Pong" is trending.
Video game fans are among the most passionate voices on Twitter, so when Pong started trending the community may have been looking for a groundbreaking Pong remastered announcement. But alas, the word is trending for a myriad of reasons that seem to have nothing to do with the classic video game. There are tons of fascinating facts about Pong, the story of it trending on Twitter for the day probably doesn't crack that list.