--- title: The "Do What You Need to Do to Cope" Meme Understands How Crazy Life Can Be description: Twitter's latest self-care meme is a sarcastic take on justifying reasons to do crazy things. canonical: https://time.com/5759884/cope-meme/ author: Raisa Bruner article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2020-01-06T19:34:53.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:01:11.294Z og:title: The "Do What You Need to Do to Cope" Meme Is Here For You og:description: The latest Twitter meme is about more than just justifying canceling plans og:url: https://time.com/5759884/cope-meme/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The "Do What You Need to Do to Cope" Meme Is Here For You twitter:description: The latest Twitter meme is about more than just justifying canceling plans twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # No One Understands the Hectic Things You Do With Your Life Like the 'Whatever You Need to Do to Cope' Meme  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Jan 6, 2020 7:34 PM UTC  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Jan 6, 2020 7:34 PM UTC [Life is hard](https://time.com/5759197/cultural-sites-iran/). Twitter understands. The latest [self-care](https://time.com/5625371/moose-in-sprinkler-alaska/) meme to [sweep](https://time.com/5720246/best-memes/) the social media site is all about prioritizing yourself and doing what you need to do to get by. “Cancelling plans is OK,” it usually starts out. That’s decent advice! But then things usually take a turn — and readers will be surprised by the actions that are deemed acceptable in order to cope. That’s because users have been converting the plots of different movies — from[ _Mamma Mia!_ ](https://time.com/5347210/mamma-mia-challenge/)to last year’s indie thriller [_Midsommar_](https://time.com/5615615/midsommar-movie-review/) to critical favorite [_Parasite_](https://time.com/5697795/bong-joon-ho-parasite-interview/) to classic _Shrek_ — into the formula of the meme. In the process, they’ve been ironically justifying everything from singing Abba songs to casual murder in the name of coping. “Do what you need to do to cope,” the tweets inevitable end, wryly. > [](https://twitter.com/filmgurlthot/status/1212882921541046279) > [](https://twitter.com/ULTRAGLOSS/status/1213507425996853248) > [](https://twitter.com/Igbtpoes/status/1213610601739673600) > [](https://twitter.com/jjomarch/status/1213210396657672192) > [](https://twitter.com/houseandhens/status/1214039200951087104) Spoiler alert: most of this advice should _not_ be taken seriously. But since when has Twitter ever actually been positive for our [collective mental health?](https://time.com/5390750/twitter-follower-counts/) In any case, welcome to 2020, where the memes are already flowing freely. (Canceling plans is totally fine if you need to do it, though.) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5759884/cope-meme/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5759884/cope-meme/"},"headline":"No One Understands the Hectic Things You Do With Your Life Like the 'Whatever You Need to Do to Cope' Meme","datePublished":"2020-01-06T19:34:53.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:01:11.294Z","description":"\"Do what you need to do to cope\"","url":"https://time.com/5759884/cope-meme/","keywords":["Newsfeed","viral","onetime","clickmonsters"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Raisa Bruner","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5759884/cope-meme/","name":"No One Understands the Hectic Things You Do With Your Life Like the 'Whatever You Need to Do to Cope' Meme"}}]}] ```