In January the biggest meme was Salt Bae and his weird salt-sprinkling tactics. In February a trio of new memes included Roll Safe, #HurtBae and the Drew Scanlon Reaction. But March 2017 seems to have brought along the best meme of 2017 so far. It’s actually not a new image – the two-year-old picture of Meryl Streep is from the SAG Awards 2015, where the actor was innocently shouting her support of Debbie Reynolds. Suddenly the image has entered circulation online once again, and for the past few days the internet has been awash with the Shouting Meryl meme, mostly used to quote classic call-and-response song lyrics.
It all started with this lovely interpretation of Missy Elliott’s 2002 banger ‘Work It’.
Missy: "If its worth it then let me work it I put my thang down flip it and reverse it"
Me: "IZYURFIMENIPAFLANYANT" pic.twitter.com/KoBGAV69E5
— “Hollywood” Dash™️ (@SayItAintDash) March 17, 2017
In a fairly standard example of how the meme developed, here’s The Killers’ ‘Mr Brightside’ getting the standard Meryl treatment:
The Killers: It started out with a kiss, how did it end up like this?
Me: IT WAS ONLY A KISS IT WAS ONLY A KISS pic.twitter.com/pDsShTLWzc
— erika™ (@erikaofthestate) March 19, 2017
Avril Lavigne’s ‘Girlfriend’ yields similar results:
Avril Lavigne: Hey! Hey! You! You!
Me: I DON'T LIKE YOUR GIRLFRIEND! pic.twitter.com/FZ0Etfke2j
— Frank Costa (@feistyfrank) March 19, 2017
As does Britney’s ‘…Baby One More Time’:
https://twitter.com/blingspice/status/843094243736518656
And, of course, Drake:
https://twitter.com/TheShadeRoom/status/843468794433490944?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
But things got slightly more interesting with ‘Empire State of Mind’, which took inspiration from Wrong Lyrics Christina:
Alicia Keys: IN NEW YOOOOOORK
Me: CONCRETE JUNGLE WET DREAM TOMAAAAATO pic.twitter.com/9VM4tXytHs
— Man of the Decade (@MissZindzi) March 18, 2017
The winning entry – so far, at least – has to be this beautiful re-interpretation of Queen’s ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’:
queen: THUNDERBOLTS AND LIGHTNING VERY VERY FRIGHTENING ME
me: GALELILEO ᴳᴬᴸᴱᴸᴵᴸᴱᴼ pic.twitter.com/d7dsteEcmB— ????? (@DAREDEVllLS) March 19, 2017
That one’s so good you almost don’t notice the misspelling of Galileo.