Signal’s better if you stand exactly here and face the moon.

A product of Automaton Improvisation and sheer human insanity.

Facebook, 13th August 2025.

A sepia-toned steampunk illustration of four Victorian scientists in a tall library-laboratory. One stands on a chair adjusting a large brass and copper ceiling device with dish-like antennae. The others hold ornate handheld receivers aloft, looking for a signal. Caption reads: “Signal’s better if you stand exactly here and face the moon.”

This meme plays on a common modern frustration — struggling to get a decent Wi-Fi signal — but reimagines it in a fictional steampunk world. Instead of laptops and routers, the characters are Victorian scientists using elaborate brass and glass “aetheric” devices to connect to some mysterious transmission network. The humour comes from the overly specific, almost superstitious instruction — “stand exactly here and face the moon” — which echoes the absurd positions people sometimes resort to in real life to get better reception. The contrast between advanced, intricate machinery and such an oddly primitive solution is what gives the joke its charm.