Regioselectivity Memes

Organic chemists have strong opinions about their reaction products! This meme perfectly captures the Friedel-Craft's alkylation preference drama. The top panel shows rejection of the boring para-substituted product (4-methoxytoluene), while the bottom panel shows pure joy for that ortho-substituted rebel (2-methoxytoluene). Why? "Steric reasons, bro!" It's basically the chemistry equivalent of picking the unpredictable friend over the reliable one at parties. The methoxy group is like "move over, I need my space!" and the methyl group is like "challenge accepted!" The reaction is throwing shade at conventional wisdom, and every organic chemistry student who's struggled through these mechanisms is feeling this on a spiritual level right now.

Parents worried about their teens texting slang have nothing on chemistry nerds! While normies decode "lol" and "ttyl," the true intellectuals are swapping regioselectivity warnings and Grignard oxidation alerts. That "smh = so much hybridization" hits different when you've spent nights drawing orbital diagrams. And "btw = boi, that's wittig" is literally how I text my lab partner when we nail that alkene synthesis. Next time you see a chemistry student hunched over their phone with a manic grin, they're not planning a party—they're probably just excited about carbenes. The struggle is real.