The joke the stamp covered
The package shows two round candies with faces; above the red character is a speech bubble, across which the marking Best By 07 SEP 18 043 / 40 runs. This is not a meaningful line or a coded message, but the date and production numbers printed on the package. Yet their placement is what turned ordinary printed information into a comic reply. The bubble promises a continuation of the conversation, and instead of a punchline the reader gets a line that has no business being there.
In the mini comic itself, one candy complains of a headache and bad weather. The date stamp covers the last part of the joke, so the original comic cannot be read in full. The irony is not that the date is funny in itself: it interrupts a deliberately ordinary conversation and takes the place reserved for the payoff.
From package photo to viral line
On March 15, 2018, Twitter user @knitcapchan posted a photo of a bag with this error and wrote that she nearly split her sides laughing at the comic on the back. Over the following days the post gathered tens of thousands of retweets and more than a hundred thousand likes. This date marks the wide attention given to this specific photo, not the day someone came up with the package itself or similar jokes with printing errors.
Variations quickly moved the stamp into familiar templates: it was placed where a caption, the end of a line, or a musical line was usually expected. Importantly, the phrase kept the long look of production marking. The less it resembles a human reply, the more sharply the expectation breaks. If the package had read a plain short “yes,” the twist would have been weaker: the numbers, date and separators create the impression of technical junk that has invaded the comic.
Why the absurdity feels complete
Here a random error works, which the post turns into a found joke. The original comic has a familiar rhythm: a character complains, the second seems to be expected to answer, and the expiry line takes the place of the payoff. The plot does not become clearer, but the sheer wrongness of the print becomes the new ending. That is why the phrase spread apart from the package: viewers began inserting it into images where a short conclusion, advice or a dramatic quote is expected.
The look of the line matters too. The words Best By promise a specific deadline, the numbers look like a production mark, and the phrase does not explain what is supposed to happen. So the meme can be almost pure absurdity: a recognizable piece of labeling appears where it has no reason to be. The numbers 043 / 40 do not give the joke a separate explanation: what is funny is the general look of the stamp and its intrusion into the comic.
Invented endings
Imagine a school poster where the question “Who took the chalk?” ends with a long “Best By 07 SEP 18 043 / 40”: the production line does not answer the question at all, and that is exactly what breaks the scene. On a screenshot of a chat about plans, one can imagine the same stamp appearing instead of the final “see you at the metro,” as if the marking had accidentally covered the arrangement. Another invented variant: a cake caption breaks off with an expiry date, as if the package interfered with the congratulations. These are invented examples; their humor lies not in a new decoding of a code, but in foreign text inserted where a clear ending was expected.
