Facebook’s Giraffe Picture Meme Game Explained [Spoilers!]

If you’ve seen the giraffe picture meme circulating Facebook, or just a lot of people who have updated their profile images to feature a giraffe, you may be wondering why the sudden trend.

Is the giraffe picture some sort of inside joke? An awareness thing? Did a famous giraffe die somewhere in the world, only to leave behind legions of mourning fans honoring his giraffy memory via a Facebook profile picture?

Maybe a little bit of one, definitely not two, and as far as we know, not three.

Update: The Inquisitr addresses rumors that Anonymous is using the Facebook giraffe meme as a way to hack users and empty bank accounts.

What we do know is this. Sometime last week, the giraffe picture began appearing in place of friends’ Facebook profile pics on the social network.As it turns out, the giraffe picture is a punishment of sorts in a new Facebook riddle game — the origins of which are unclear.

Then the riddle, which has been increasingly circulating (and we promise to spoil it in this post.) One version of the giraffe picture meme post reads as such:

“It’s 3:00 am, the doorbell rings, and you wake up. Unexpected visitors — it’s your parents, and they are there for breakfast. You have strawberry jam, honey, wine, bread, and cheese. What is the first thing you open?”

Well? Answer correctly, or you too will “have” to post a giraffe picture and spread the meme.

As with many viral trends, the giraffe picture Facebook meme is self-perpetuating… and given the ambiguity of the riddle, a great many will get it wrong.

Like with many riddles, the giraffe picture game also relies on misdirection — an unusual circumstance is the setting for the scenario (because most people are sound asleep in bed at 3 AM, with few unexpected social calls occurring at this hour.)

On top of that, the items listed are all ones that require opening to a degree. A bottle of wine, a jar of jam, honey, a package of cheese or bread. All are seemingly unrelated to the worrisome circumstance of both your parents arriving on your doorstep unannounced in the middle of the night, and all added to up the level of confusion about the riddle.

Now to the answer — it actually varies. We believe the giraffe picture game is seeking “the door” as the answer, an item not listed among the items meant to be considered by the riddled party, and one whose opening is necessary to kick off any level of middle of the night breakfast with parents.

However, the giraffe picture game is not meant to be about solving the riddle, it’s about getting more players… and piquing interest with the profile image change. As for the other answer? “Your eyes” has been floated as the real giraffe riddle answer, but it also seems that unlike the door, eyes open reflexively for most upon waking and thus should not be counted in the question of what one “chooses” to open first.

Have you played the giraffe picture game on Facebook, and received the consequence of a changed pic?