Indihome Paket Phoenix

Origin

"IndiHome Paket Phoenix" is a meme drawn from an advertisement for internet plans by IndiHome, an Indonesian internet and landline provider. Its full name pairs the two plans featured: "IndiHome Paket Phoenix / Streamix."

The video is known to have been uploaded to YouTube on April 30th, 2020, as an edit. In it, two IndiHome workers referred to as Mas Agus and Mas Pras present the Paket Streamix and Paket Phoenix plans while throwing shocker and shaka hand gestures. According to Indonesian meme-documentation pages, this was not a national TV spot but promotional material made by the Facebook page of IndiHome's Surabaya operation; the two men are actual employees, and the material carried contact numbers for signing up.

The decisive element is the music. The track is a remix of "Goyang Ubur Ubur" by Hendro Engkeng, a song that had already gone viral on Indonesian TikTok in late 2019. Familiar music laid over the clumsy visuals and gesturing of a local advertisement left an impression the ad never intended.

Spread

It became a meme as a bait-and-switch. Videos would begin as something else entirely and then abruptly cut to this advertisement — a format that took off on Indonesian Facebook and Instagram in late May 2020. A video posted by Facebook user Tezi on May 27th, 2020 recorded 960 views against 1,900 shares, the lopsided pattern typical of this kind of spread.

In early June 2020, YouTube user Rhinoo Yofran posted a compilation of the memes that passed 1.3 million views in four months. It reached audiences outside Indonesia a few months later, around October 2020, after which parodies and re-edits appeared on Instagram and Twitter from users with no knowledge of the local context.

How it is used

• As a bait edit spliced into the middle of a video to derail it
• As shorthand for the particular texture of an amateurish local advertisement
• As a music meme, using the "Goyang Ubur Ubur" remix and the gestures on their own
• As a joke attached to any discussion of internet speeds or telecom providers

Sources

• Know Your Meme, "IndiHome Paket Phoenix / Streamix" — the April 30th, 2020 upload, the Mas Agus and Mas Pras gestures, the use of the "Goyang Ubur Ubur" remix, the late May 2020 Indonesian wave and the international spread around October
• YouTube, "Meme Indihome Paket Phoenix. Mas Agus | Mas Pras (Original Video)" — the source video
• Know Your Meme Indonesia (unofficial), Facebook post — the account that the material was made by IndiHome's Surabaya page, that the two men are real employees, and that contact numbers were included