June 21, 2017 2:22 PM EDT
Throwback to 2009 when Owl City released their pop hit “Fireflies,” which lit up iPods with synthesized piano and some baffling lyrics. Though the song was released eight years ago, the anthem has been revived through Internet users‘ favorite medium: memes.
In many of the memes and gifs that have surfaced online, tense situations are juxtaposed with the upbeat rhythm of Owl City’s chorus.
What confuses Internet users the most is the sheer possibility of receiving “a thousand hugs from ten thousand lightning bugs,” which leads the second verse of the song. One Twitter user went straight to the source — Owl City — and asked about the logistics of being hugged by ten thousand fireflies.
@owlcity In the song "Fireflies" you state "I get a thousand hugs from 10,000 lightning bugs." How do you interpret this statement?
— ً (@pryce_d) May 31, 2017@owlcity Does each firefly hug you 1,000 times or do only 1/10th of the bugs give you a hug?
— ً (@pryce_d) May 31, 2017Owl City provided the Internet with a detailed response, as Buzzfeed reported: “As the lyrics of the song clearly state, the average layperson would not believe their eyes if 10,000,000 fireflies were to illuminate planet Earth, nor would the average person conclude by natural instinct that 10,000 lightning bugs, acting as a collective group, are capable of embracing a human being 1,000 times without difficulty.”
So, in fact, we would not believe our eyes.
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