The People Vowing to Storm Area 51 Have Sparked a Meme Craze

Over 900,000 people have pledged to attend a Facebook event called “Storm Area 51,” started by a group of alien hunters inviting people to do just that—to storm Area 51, the highly-classified United States air force facility. The grounds have long been the site of conspiracy theories: mainly those involving UFO and alien presence.

The event’s motivation? To “see them aliens.” Another 849,000 people have expressed interest.

At first, the event seemed to be more serious than the average Facebook antic. The group has vowed to meet on September 20, 2019 at 3 PM in Southern Nevada, the site of Area 51. They’ve decided the site of their meet-up near the US Air Force base, where they will “Naruto run.” The run, inspired by the Japanese manga series, has a purpose: “If we Naruto run, we can move faster than their bullets” say the event hosts.

Okay, then.

However implausible this whole thing was, the US Air Force was still compelled to acknowledge the so-called threat.

Laura McAndrews, a spokeswoman for the force, released a statement regarding the event, letting potential alien-hunters know that they are, in fact, prepared to stop them. “The US Air Force always stands ready to protect American and its assets,” she said, also stating that they “discourage anyone from trying to come into the area.”

Still, the traction for the viral event has led to a meme craze that continues to trend online – days after the event was actually made.

The hashtag #Area51 has gotten thousands of tweets and memes across social media platforms already. It’s spread to the likes of Burger King and the Jonas Brothers, whose tweets show that they, too, have hopped on to the craze.

Here are the best of the lot:

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