In late August, worldwide searches for “memes” surpassed those for “Jesus” on Google, as Twitter user @Kuwaddo noticed. What prompted people to put their faith in funny or absurd internet ephemera over the purported Messiah? It’s hard to know for sure, but our guess would be that the U.S. presidential election had at least something to do with it.
WE DID IT PEOPLE.
WE FUCKING DID IT.
HOLY SHIT. pic.twitter.com/RgfAM2H9W2— Quad (@Kuwaddo) October 25, 2016
Before we go any farther, we should define the terms involved, in case you also were thinking about Googling either word. Merriam-Webster describes a meme as “a cultural item in the form of an image, video,phrase, etc., that is spread via the Internet and often altered in a creative or humorous way.” Jesus is, depending on who you ask, either the son of God and the Messiah or a random Jew who met an unfortunate end and inspired a lot of stories. We just saved you a Google search. Moving on.
Searches for memes in the U.S. actually passed those for Jesus in April, just as it was becoming clear that Donald Trump would become the GOP candidate for president. Internationally, memes passed Jesus in searches just a few weeks before the GOP and Democratic Conventions Was this because Americans and then the rest of the world collectively decided that when facing an election between two historically unpopular candidates, Dat Boi and Damn, Daniel represented humanities best hope for spiritual fulfillment and maintaining at least some sanity? Perhaps. Or maybe they just wanted to learn about Hillary stealing her look from Death Row Records.
Regardless, it seems unlikely memes will stay on top for long because Jesus–as he is wont to do–will probably rise again (on Google).
Until then, let’s go back and reexamine some of the memes that finally helped “meme” overtake “Jesus” on Google searches.
Ted Cruz as the Zodiac Killer
https://twitter.com/Dadspar/status/702674610983084032
We are finding many Floridians can not rule out the possibility, although few are convinced of guilt https://t.co/OPsWIl97Sy
— PublicPolicyPolling (@ppppolls) February 25, 2016
Bernie or Hillary?
https://twitter.com/SassySenSanders/status/693293998493032448?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Haters Gonna Say It’s Fake
https://twitter.com/robertson_ldn/status/737300869436329984?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Haters are prolly gonna say its fake pic.twitter.com/JXsXJJvSJS
— Agreeny wit da Beanie (@andy_greenawalt) June 14, 2016
Sad Ben Affleck
Don’t Talk to Me or My Son Ever Again
don't ever talk to me or my son ever again pic.twitter.com/0oW6Ks0YQ5
— grant (@coolsk8rboy) March 10, 2016
don't talk to me or my son ever again pic.twitter.com/ER2e0xURWl
— Perfume Genius (@perfumegenius) March 13, 2016
And, of course, Harambe
https://twitter.com/shutupmikeginn/status/739517534169227264?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
