Weekend Meme Roundup: Shroomjak, Nothing Stronger Than Family, Saddam Hussein's Hiding Place

Welcome to the weekend roundup, where the trending memes of the past weekend are rounded up and examined more closely. This past weekend was absolutely bananas insane with the new memes. We have the unexpected Saddam Hussein Hiding Place, which came out to a blazing fast start but is already being overtaken by Fast and Furious referential meme Nothing Stronger Than Family featuring Vin Diesel. Never one to leave the spotlight for too long, Wojak got a new content drop with the Shroomjak expansion to round out the weekend.

Saddam Hussein Hiding Place

Saddam Hussein's Hiding Place refers to a 2003 illustration by the BBC that depicts Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's hiding place. Recently, this image hit a resurgence due to how similar it is to the living conditions of microunit housing in major cities, like New York. There are two main variants of the Saddam Hussein meme, with the initially more popular one making changes to the initial cave design given by the BBC. This would involve taking the picture of the cave and adding other features or amenities to it, such as a bear pit. This variant was overtaken by the now more commonly used variant of "Saddamposting" simply coloring figures red in all sorts of media. In the BBC diagram, Saddam Hussein was a red silhouette figure, and so by either adding a red figure to other meme formats or changing existing figures to be all red, a Saddam-themed shitpost is created.

Shroomjak

Shroomjak or Mushroom Wojak is a variation of the Wojak character that resembles a mushroom, adorned with a smiling face. The Wojak was first posted to 4chan's /b/ board in January 2021, becoming popularized later in the year as it was shared around social media and spread to other platforms. Unlike other famous Wojaks, Shroomjak isn't concerned about conveying a special type of emotion or covering a gap from the Rage Face era, but is mostly done as a counter to commercialized Wojak-ism. The meme itself evolved to not even need the Wojak, but just putting the same type of mushroom cap on another figure counts as part of the meme.

Nothing Stronger Than Family

Nothing Stronger Than Family is a reference and catchphrase found in the Fast And Furious movie franchise. This catchphrase has formed over the main character, played by Vin Diesel, always mentioning something about family during his pep talks and other crucial moments. In the past, this meme would be seen in the way that some people call the franchise the "familiaverse" as a play on "family universe." The most common usage of this meme is to take images of Vin Diesel, while holding a gun or looking tough, and adding in something with Photoshop about him having to face impossible odds. Another growing trend with the meme is to photoshop Vin Diesel holding a gun into other movie scenes, such as having him prepare to fight Thanos.

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