- A meme format featuring
Pope Francis exploded onTwitter over the weekend, using the platform's four-panel image formatting to picture the Pope holding various objects. - The image was originally taken in Brazil in 2013, and has been an inspiration for meme formats since.
- Some
memes show the Pope holding objects like cosmetics, while others remix the format to incorporate other popular memes.
Pope Francis was all over Twitter this weekend. A four-panel meme that shows him holding up various objects ranging from $4 to Glossier blush saw an uptick in popularity starting on October 16.
As $4, the meme isn't actually new — rather, this new wave on Twitter is a resurgence that builds upon former meme formats featuring this particular photo of the Pope.
The original photo was taken in Brazil in 2013 during a celebration of Mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine of Our Lady Aparecida, and is credited to photographer Buda Mendes and Getty Images. In the picture, he's holding a wafer of sacramental bread as part of Holy Communion.
In edits on Twitter, he could just as easily be holding one of the most popular icons of the past year.
—President Warren G Haunting (@PopeAwesomeXIII) $4
$4 reports that variations of the image circulated on platforms like Tumblr in the mid-2010s, primarily replacing the communion wafer with CDs. There's also the Instagram account $4 which edits various album covers into his outstretched hands and appears to have posted in September 2019.
Now, the meme has been adjusted to fit into Twitter's four-panel image format, with Know Your Meme identifying user @SUEHULK as $4 as part of the current wave.
Typically, Pope Francis himself occupies the bottom left panel as well as both right panels, with an object of choice filling in the top-left frame.
—Harry Hill (@veryharryhill) $4
—Amy Zimmer (@oneamyzimmer) $4
Many iterations of the meme began with venerated objects — for some, that meant sworn-by cosmetic products; for others, it meant classic video game console controllers or paper fortune tellers.
—N64 Today (@N64Today) $4
—molly but spooky (@505mol) $4
Some of the memes also included fictional or abstract objects, with many people invoking recognizable symbols like a $4, a Shine Sprite from $4and Yu Gi Oh cards.
—Michal (@Miexriir) $4
—Maryo (@MaryoZimmerman) $4
—andrea (@ndruja) $4
One particularly viral iteration of the meme that amassed over 500,000 likes made it appear as if Pope Francis was part of a recognizable sequence from "Spider-Man" (2002).
—Willem Da Fiend (@willsmithx4) $4
Many iterations of the meme veered into the abstract, with people remixing the format of the meme itself. In doing so, they adapted it to include other popular memes like the $4, or used it to reference $4
—dream song 4 (@chickenpaprika) $4
—ali (@VlBRATORBIT) $4
Of course, not everyone was thrilled about the Pope meme — Martin Luther, the $4, certainly wouldn't be.
—muscle skoals (@MuscleSkoals) $4