Grim reality of war bad fit for memes
Ishould start this column with full disclosure — I spend much more of my work week looking at cat memes than I probably should. I pepper most of my online interactions with friends with a decent amount of both memes and gifs, especially ones that contain cats, gin, or Harry Potter characters. What can I say? I’m clearly a Gen Xer with the humour of a younger Millennial or Gen Zer. My parents always did say I had an immature sense of humour.
Memes are great, and they particularly appeal to my British upbringing — as all us Brits know, any socially awkward or tense moment can always be diffused with a little bit of self-deprecating humour or a sarcastic joke, but right now there are a few memes showing up on my social media feeds that are annoying, not amusing me.
Since Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his military forces to invade Ukraine last month, the internet has been flooded with gifs, memes, tweets and TikTok videos all focused on the crisis, with a large number of them focused on one person in particular — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Over the past couple of weeks, I have seen it all. From the over 21,000 retweets of a tweet reading “BREAKING: every woman in your life now has at least a small crush on Volodymyr Zelensky, and there’s absolutely nothing you can do about it”, to fancams devoted to watching his every move.
Netizens have, it seems, become obsessed with Zelensky, sharing memes, gifs, tweets and more about him that range from being simply weird (did you know he once pretended to play the piano with a rather intimate body part? I do, thanks to one such weird meme currently circulating) to outright tasteless (Paddington Bear amongst war graves).
There is no question Zelensky is a fascinating person who, in peacetime, would absolutely merit many a meme. After all, before he was president, he was an actor and comedian who found fame in a satirical television series Servant of the People, playing a character who accidentally became the Ukrainian President.
He also voiced the character of Paddington Bear in the Ukrainian version of the movie and won his country’s version of Dancing with the Stars so there’s unarguably comedic gold in his life story for meme creators worldwide.
But, while memes about him back in 2019 when he was elected were perfectly appropriate and funny, in 2022 as he and his people face the consequences and reality of the illegal Russian invasion of Ukraine, those memes aren’t quite so funny.
Sure, they might make you giggle as you drink your first coffee of the day and scroll through the countless memes and tweets comparing Zelensky to a Jedi knight or Marvel superhero, but before you click like or share, stop and think for a moment.
Is the illegal invasion of Ukraine a sci-fi or superhero movie? No, it’s not. it is a real-life tragedy, not part of our daily entertainment programme.
The undeniable horror of any war is not something that can be encapsulated in any single tweet, TikTok video, meme or gif, nor is it something we ever should be clicking “Like” or “share” on.
A TikTok video showing planes avoiding Ukraine’s airspace, set to a sped-up rendition of Demi Lovato’s Sorry Not Sorry, got millions of views, helping the TikToker who made it “go viral” — but doing nothing to actually help the millions of Ukrainians for whom life is anything but a fun music video.
It’s time to stop sharing and liking warrelated memes and viral videos, and instead, start clicking and sharing where it counts. If you can afford to, consider donating to the World Vision Ukraine crisis appeal, or if you aren’t in a position to give financial support, click on the link anyway and then click again to share it to your social media feeds.
That’s the type of online support the Ukrainian people need, not memes and gifs turning their tragedy into cheap, viral entertainment. So let’s keep the meme sharing for the cute cats and celebrity fails and leave the like button alone when it comes to the grim reality of war.