A New, Meme-Fueled Nostalgia for War
The World War III memes are here, bursting onto the shores of TikTok and Twitter after American forces killed Iranian Major General Qassem Soleimani this week. “Me and the boys on missile duty during #WWIII,” one reads, illustrated by a GIF of two soldiers running from a misfired mortar. “Me chilling at home after ignoring my draft notice #WWIII,” says another, illustrated with a Spider-Man clip in which the hero’s aunt is interrupted during a prayer by the Green Goblin exploding through her window.
Along with the memes came the counter-memes, chiding people for joking about war, or smarming at them over how little their comfortable life would be impacted by a new war in Iran.
World War III is not actually upon us, of course, but just #WWIII—a container for content. In that role, these memes fulfill the internet’s ability to fashion endless turtles of meta-content about World War III memes.
