Structural formula Memes

Parents just don't understand that those "useless zigzags" are literally the backbone of organic chemistry. Every carbon-carbon bond in alkenes, every benzene ring, every reaction mechanism... it's all zigzags! That confused Mike Wazowski face perfectly captures the existential crisis of every o-chem student whose family thinks they're just doodling nonsense instead of learning the very language of life. Next time mom complains, just hand her a structural formula for caffeine and watch her try to "stop drawing zigzags."

That's triphenylmethane. Or as we call it in the lab, "the chemical structure you draw when you're pretending to take notes but actually planning your weekend." Every organic chemist has sketched this exact molecule during a boring seminar. It's the universal symbol for "I understand benzene rings and absolutely nothing else about this lecture."