After years of Donald Trump tweeting flagrant falsehoods at a breathless pace, the brain trust at Twitter finally started to crack down on them, at the very end of his presidency.
The referees of truth first found their whistle over the summer of 2020, when the company began to put warnings over Trump’s tweets about voter fraud, and labeling other tweets as containing manipulated media.
Now that Trump has lost the election, however, his baseless tweets about supposed voter fraud are constant. Thus, the humble Twitter warning about the president’s claims being disputed is now ubiquitous.
The Radical Left Democrats, working with their partner, the Fake News Media, are trying to STEAL this Election. We won’t let them!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 16, 2020
The Fake recount going on in Georgia means nothing because they are not allowing signatures to be looked at and verified. Break the unconstitutional Consent Decree!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 16, 2020
Most fraudulent Election in history! https://t.co/X2pRkTqWIS
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 16, 2020
As with all ubiquitous things on the internet, a meme has already sprung up about the warnings on Trump’s tweets.
Of course, it has. That’s just how memes work. It’s like Rule 34, but funnier.
The Daily Show got in on the game relatively early with the below tweet on Monday, November 16, making fun of the frequency of Twitter’s warnings.
Twitter has had it pic.twitter.com/ILuTrdW3jg
— The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) November 16, 2020
Pretty soon, though, the joke format evolved toward the form it eventually took, in which the Twitter warnings are applied to anything but voter fraud.
This early version, from an SNL writer, still riffed on the light-blue Twitter warnings, which takes a bit of digital know-how to effectively manipulate.
I hate this website pic.twitter.com/LdqfMf5Nui
— Steven Castillo (@STEEEZUSCHRIST) November 16, 2020
Not long after author, artist and TV writer Jonny Sun figured out that one could create the same effect using a bolded font, though, the meme exploded.
FEELING PRETTY GOOD RIGHT NOW ABOUT THINGS!
⨂ 𝗢𝗳𝗳𝗶𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝘀𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗰𝗲𝘀 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗱𝗲𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗱 𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗲𝗺𝗼𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗱𝗶𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗹𝘆
— jonny sun (@jonnysun) November 16, 2020
Suddenly, the disputed-claim meme was everywhere, and focused on a variety of topics.
ugh I’m done dating men.
!⃝ 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗰𝗹𝗮𝗶𝗺 𝗶𝘀 𝗱𝗶𝘀𝗽𝘂𝘁𝗲𝗱
— marv 🇵🇸 ❂ (@mvn_dn) November 17, 2020
https://twitter.com/danfromtheweb/status/1328569856099307521
I often make fun of @swin24 on this website, but he’s a good person and invaluable White House reporter.
!⃝ 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗰𝗹𝗮𝗶𝗺 𝗶𝘀 𝗱𝗶𝘀𝗽𝘂𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗯𝘆 𝗼𝗳𝗳𝗶𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝘀𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗰𝗲𝘀
— David Weigel (@daveweigel) November 17, 2020
https://twitter.com/danfromtheweb/status/1328569856099307521
The meme really started to get creative, however, when the joke moved from being about the fact that some claim was disputed to being about who was disputing said claims.
JUST TURNED IN A FLAWLESS FIRST DRAFT TO MY EDITOR!
!⃝ 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗰𝗹𝗮𝗶𝗺 𝗵𝗮𝘀 𝗯𝗲𝗲𝗻 𝗱𝗶𝘀𝗽𝘂𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗯𝘆 my editor.
— Dom DiFurio (inactive) (@DomDiFurio) November 17, 2020
https://twitter.com/yoyomorena/status/1328669905676222464
https://twitter.com/nthnashma/status/1328645100671541248
Doctors say you should see the great clown Pagliacci
!⃝ This claim is disputed by Pagliacci
— The Dark Room 🔜 i72! #i72 (@Robbotron) November 17, 2020
I heard a rumor that the advisor to Tsar Nicholas II and his wife was poisoned, stabbed, and shot, and still only died of drowning after his body was thrown in a river.
!⃝ 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗰𝗹𝗮𝗶𝗺 𝗶𝘀 𝗥𝗮𝘀𝗽𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗻
— Frank Lesser (@sadmonsters) November 17, 2020
And, of course, like most memes, this one eventually ends up going meta and eating itself.
https://twitter.com/Simply_Glocks/status/1328604201669292032
If you have a good idea for a joke using this meme, take your time with it and don’t feel like it has to go up now. Surely, this one won’t get old for a while.
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