If you have been active in the toy photography community for any length of time you have been exposed to the meme #wienerdipping. It is a long standing joke that has taken on a life of its own.

Over two years ago I posted a photo of my mini me holding up two wieners asking “What do I do with these?” My good friend Wiiman (always the quick wit) responded back with a photo of his mini me holding a cup and wiener with the following text: “I don’t always dip my wiener, but when I do, I prefer something warm and wet.”…and a meme was born.

Since that fateful day 571 (and growing) photos have been posted with the #wienerdipping hash tag; so many different iterations have been posted. Just when I think it can’t get any more amusing someone will raise the bar: like the first multi dip, or the eight bit version, even Boba got hip to the meme! My favorite was when Wiiman posted a series of photos exploring the history of wiener dipping with Doc, Marty and a time traveling Delorian (#wienerdippingintime). Luckily most of the innuendo has been subtle enough to go over the heads of all the under aged Instagram users who follow our Lego accounts.

We have had a lot of fun with this meme in the Instagram Lego photography community, so it comes as a pleasant surprise that we are seeing cups and wieners show up outside the City sets where they have been customarily found. First we saw the double-decker couch (set 70818) include four cups and one red wiener. I’m pretty sure I never saw this scene in The Lego Movie! Now the latest Ninjago sets include both cups and wieners! I’m pretty sure cups and wieners have not been standard issue in the world of Ninjago before.

So what gives?

Is lego watching us as much as we are watching them? Are they in on the joke? Does LEGO take some of their inspiration from the toy photography community? Or is this just a big coincidence?

What do you think?

~ xxsjc

I haven’t taken a spin through the tag in a while and I couldn’t stop laughing as I was reviewing it for this post. So many clever photos… you really must see them to appreciate how great this community is. 

A hat tip to Bricksailboat for pointing out this “coincidence” to me. Also a big thank you to InkBlot photography for allowing me to use her image as the Featured Image.