The Death of a Good Meme, and the Birth of Yet another Bad One…

I’ll spare you the flashy intro and get straight to the point for this one. Leonardo DiCaprio won his first Oscar. It’s been the topic of discussion for the past two days. It’s been all over Facebook, Twitter, Youtube — everyones talking about Leo and the conclusion to what can only be described as a hilariously prolonged journey to receiving an Academy Award. Several years ago, the realization that Leonardo DiCaprio, one of America’s most beloved actors, has had a tremendously long and prestigious career in Hollywood, but had yet to win even a single Oscar. This realization birthed one of the cornerstones of the internet and social media — a meme.

The “Leo and his Oscar” meme had its ups and downs in popularity, gaining attention whenever Leo would star in a film, such as 2013’s The Wolf of Wallstreet. To many, it was a small source for chuckles, seeing animated gifs of Leo’s struggle toward an Oscar, or stills from any of his classic films that people believed were Oscar worthy. To others, however, the meme’s humor did not merit the amount of attention it had gotten over the years. One Reddit user by the name of QuincyQuickQuestion hit the front page after 2016’s Academy Awards with his post titled, “I’m not sure who is more happy, Leo for winning his Oscar, or me for not having to hear about Leo and his lack of Oscar wins anymore.” Whatever your opinion of the meme may have been, it is important that we acknowledge that it is now gone. I speak for all parties involved when I say: Rest in Peace, Leo meme.

Now for the second part of my agenda that I will push on you, my dear readers. The past two weeks have seen the rise of a new meme — an awful, unfunny, lazy meme. I am, of course, referring to “Damn, Daniel”. If you haven’t seen it, I applaud you. It’s been all over social media. People have been saying it to one another. It makes no sense. The following is a simple test that you, at home, can administer to any meme to see if it is a good meme: If it is funny, can you explain why? In the case of “Damn, Daniel”… no, you cannot. Yet it has gone insanely viral over the past week. Please, stop using this meme.

I’m not alone in my disdain for this unfunny meme, either. Just yesterday, the original poster of the video, 15-year-old Josh Holz, had his Twitter account stolen and the video removed by an unknown hacker. The vocal minority (of which I am a part of) who do not like this meme are vastly overshadowed by the sea of internet users who promote the popularity of this meme. This is nothing more than a case of people reposting and using viral phrases because all of their friends are doing it.

TL;DR: Dear Leo meme, RIP. Please take Damn Daniel with you.