It was only obtainable for a short period of time. It was rare and stood out. If you had one, it was something to show off. So they’d literally link it in chat to show off. It turned into a meme of people looking for any excuse to link it. Hence “did someone say…” variants with it linked. Then it went too far and wouldn’t die. Then people without the item would do it without the link. Just got stupid.

Monkey see, monkey do