Von der Leyen: after the damage, the meme. One could say so, following the incredible diplomatic incident that occurred in Ankara. Let's briefly review the news and see how the people of the web were unleashed after what has already been renamed sofagate (or Sediagate).
Erdogan's rudeness to Ursula von der Leyen
Ankara, Tuesday 6 April, presidential palace. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan receives Ursula von der Leyen and Charles Michel, respectively President of the European Commission and President of the European Council. Erdogan makes Michel sit in the chair next to his own but does not do the same with Von der Leyen: also because there is no third chair. And so the president, after standing for a moment in amazement, took a seat on the sofa.
It is very easy to imagine the diplomatic consequences: Erdogan accused of machismo and narrow-mindedness. And then the political controversy: the gesture of the Turkish dictator resembles a break in relations with Europe.
But the consequences of Erdogan's rudeness do not end there.
Von der Leyen's chair: birth of a meme
For the few who don't know, a meme is an idea or action that spreads very quickly in mass culture, becoming a catchphrase.
Ma today with meme we mean almost exclusively a digital content that, taking its cue from a news story, spreads on the Net with humorous or parody intent.
And imagine if an event as sensational as the one that happened in Ankara on Tuesday could have remained without its battery of memes.
The Von der Leyen case: meme zero
To get straight to the heart, the palm of the most widespread meme on the Erdogan-Von der Leyen case certainly goes to the one you see below.
There are at least two reasons. Meanwhile, being mute, the meme is understandable at any latitude. And then, in its dryness and essentiality, it is so irresistible that we too will be careful not to explain it to you.
Ursula Von der Leyen and Erdogan's memes on machismo
Among the most popular categories, with'era previdibile, there are memes that underline Erdogan's sexist gesture. And they do it from different points of view. Who indulging in the machismo of the Turkish president and who on the presumed psychological submission of the president.
And there are also those who introduce the figure of the compassionate elderly man with a mask, the bearer of an ancient nobility of soul, who repairs the dictator's gestaccio. Ah, no: it's Bernie Sanders!
Here is an example for each of the three sub-categories.
Erdogan and Europe
The irony of others has had as its object the strained relations between Ankara and Europe. And so, the following meme reveals to us that the Turkish president's rudeness does not arise from a male-dominated perspective, but from a blackmail request for money from the European Union.
Ursula von der Leyen e il meme all'italiana
Then there are a series of memes on sofagate that belong to Italian popular culture. In what you see below, for example, the reference to a famous sketch by the comic trio Aldo, Giovanni and Giacomo is clear.
Other humorous strategies
If the memes seen so far play to amplify the problem, emphasizing now the human and now the political aspect of the story, there are others who adopt a different kind of irony. Let's take the following two. The first, by pretending that the diplomatic meeting at the highest level was actually an appointment between kids ready to play, underlines by contrast the absurdity of Erdogan's lack of style.
The second, refined, places Erdogan in the Olympus of the unpronounceable names of Ikea furniture. And it is all too obvious to imagine what object was associated with the Turkish president.
The war of memes. Phenomenology of an infinite joke
- Lolli, Alessandro (Author)
Not only Ursula: the meme and the news
Now there is no sensational story that escapes the irony of the web and the world of meme.
It is as if the virtual world has generated a kind of counterculture, of collective psychological resistance to the distortions of the world. As if to say: certain things happen, we ordinary citizens do not have the power to prevent them but at least we have the freedom to laugh at them.
And if there have been many memes that have accompanied, and still accompany, these painful months of pandemic, it is worth closing our article with a smile, however bitter, on the recent story of the blockade of the Suez Canal by the container ship. Ever Given.
Because, as we all know, there is nothing like a construction site without old men lurking there to take a look.
