Mathematics is always an abstract in the classroom, with little practical application. Trig made far more sense when I was using it to analyze a truss load than it did as nebulous numbers.
I also support poking fun at authority figures, and that is often the purpose of these memes and jokes.
Yes, every time you're dealing with angles in the physical world, trig is just a great way of expressing and calculating these things. And angles are, well, no small part of the physical world
I'm glad you're finding a use for trig =)