But meme creators who sell NFTs are not greedy hyper capitalists looking to scam unwitting buyers. They are regular people who, often without their permission, became universally recognized cultural symbols (and sometimes laughingstocks) without any monetary reward… and now they’re finally getting the payout they deserve. Meme creators are the direct beneficiaries of sales. Zoë Roth, the subject of “Disaster Girl”, described her auction as “a way for her to take control over a situation that she has felt powerless over since she was in elementary school,” with every societal ‘disaster’ inevitably prompting a resurgence in the meme. She called it “a once-in-a-lifetime feeling” to “finally [have] some say in what happened with [the meme].” Zoë was able to pay off her student loans after Disaster Girl sold at auction for $500,000, then donated much of the rest to charity. Kyle Craven (Bad Luck Brian) describes NFTs as “the only thing that memes can do to take control.”