How The Lasting Power Of Movie Franchises Endure Through Memes

A lasting part of pop culture is the memorable quotes that are repeated over and over. As Jonah Hill famously said in This is the End, “Your references are out of control, everyone knows that.” Millennial culture is heavily defined by these iconic lines, shown through the myriad of Spongebob Squarepants references to even classic Vines and now TikToks — and memes often take this form as well.

This phenomenon is especially true for memes pulled from movies where a quote is so bad, so goofy or so memorable that it becomes a full meme all on its own. When the Star Wars prequels began to show up in Facebook and Reddit meme cultures, it marked a notable trend. The trend was to dive and pick apart popular movies from the childhoods of Millennials and find memeable quotes or catchphrases. This trend allowed fans of these franchises to appreciate their childhood as well as poke fun of the movies themselves.

The three Star Wars prequels all feature cheesy dialogue and memorable moments, which is why they started the trend of Prequel Memes. Starting from Facebook fan groups like Star Wars Prequel Appreciation Society (SWPAS) and advancing to meme-based ones like Star Wars Sithposting caused the trend to bud and grow rapidly. A bit over three years after the creation of SWPAS the subreddit /r/PrequelMemes was formed and quickly grew, contributing to many meme trends on Reddit even outside of the fandom.

However, the memes from the movies aren’t limited to screenshots as punchlines. Quotes like "Now This Is Podracing" by young Anakin, gets referenced for the goofiness of the delivery. Other notable trends include the copypasta of The Tragedy of Darth Plagueis The Wise from Chancellor Palpatine, as well as Sheevposting — a series of parodies focused around Palpatine and his name. The clear thing about the prequels is that the memes are done in jest, in a way to accept the movie's flaws and allow for a renewed appreciation from fans.

As the prequel memes trend kicked off, another movie franchise would begin to show its quality for meme potential: The Lord of the Rings. One discrepancy between the Star Wars prequels and the Lord of the Rings trilogy is their view in the zeitgeist. While the latter is known for bad dialogue and confusing characterization, the former is beloved for the inverse. That is to say, the Lord of the Rings is remembered fondly, and so it stands that it should be harder to meme them.

However, that doesn’t stop the internet. In November 2016, a Facebook group was created surrounding the franchise to specifically make memes from it. Lord Of The Rings Shireposting was created by user Kaspar M. Nyestrom, and the Facebook group has since steadily grown. It stands as one of the earliest groups to meme the movies in earnest with a dedicated passion. Even with Shireposting's relatively small community, its reach spread far. It’s important to note that the popularity of Lord of the Rings memes were somewhat sporadic until only a few years ago.

It was through Reddit that the greater meme trend for Lord of the Rings took off to new heights. Similar to the Star Wars prequels, the density and crossposting of Reddit skyrocketed the movies to memery legend. Although /r/lotrmemes was created in 2012, it never had wide success until the end of 2017. From there, the subreddit shot upwards to its current 722,000 subscribers. The community of LotR is even kinder to both the animated movies and also The Hobbit series. Shireposting began with a screencap from the animated movie, and The Hobbit films are considered similar to how the prequels are in the Star Wars community (or more recently the sequel trilogy).

One of the fascinating things is how LotR memes did not simply copy the trend of prequel memes. Shireposting has a divergent style where various movie scenes and imagery are used. It allows for fewer formats and reposts of basic quotes or quote punchlines. Of course, there are some that use more typical meme formats, as it's inevitable as the internet's nature. But this style being rarer compared to the prequel meme community showcases the divide in the trends. The truth is that Shireposting pushed content in a different direction, and as a result, so did /r/lotrmemes and the other subcultures that followed in the footsteps of their precursors.

As Millennials are a quote-driven community online, it stands to reason that more and more movie franchises will be picked apart. However, Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings are cultural giants who are forever embedded in pop culture. It's likely that they will always remain a deep well for memes, especially with new endeavors on the horizon for both. So if a lurker wants to scroll their various feeds, it's easy to assume that while eating a second breakfast, they will be greeted by Obi-Wan Kenobi or Peregrin Took for years to come.

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