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Regarding "You know I had to do it to em"

Last posted Jan 15, 2017 at 06:29PM EST. Added Dec 29, 2016 at 02:03PM EST
3 posts from 3 users



There has been an observed lack of understanding of context as to why this particular meme has been spread, so this thread is dedicated to the open discussion and dissection of the meme and its origins.

According to Wikipedia,
Charles "Lucky" Luciano was an Italian-American mobster and Crime Boss. Luciano is considered the father of modern organized crime in the United States for the establishment of the first Commission (the governing body of the American Mafia formed in 1931).

What can be seen in the photo is a lively, seemingly upper class [perhaps Italian] young man tweeting out on the 2nd of September 2014, "You know I had to do it to em," all with the username "Lucky Luciano."

There is no context to the tweet given, much like a mobster would make a reference to adversaries he's iced without giving himself away.

What can be gathered from this tweet is that the young man, who is perhaps emulating Luciano [and could possibly be the son of an established mobster] has had somebody he didn't like offed and properly disposed of in an orderly fashion. The young man, unfazed by the atrocity of his actions, tweets out a message to any remaining "mobsters," opponents of his, or even connections that he means business in order to affirm his position as a serious contender in the underground mafia world.

However, this evident attempt to be perceived as a worthy mafia member is offset by a well-groomed young man being dressed in matching pastel pink short and button-up shirt with pulled-up sleeves accompanied by apparently expensive watch and earring clasping his hands with an earnest smile, an obvious sock tan [the ones that go past the ankles very close to/in summer (depending on when school begins and assuming the photo and tweet were taken on the same day)] and a brown pair of moccasin slippers.

Therefore the context behind the image could be that the young man's tweet is seen as a "fail" in the underground mafia and has been retweeted in mockery of him.

However there are several holes in the aforementioned theory, including why mafia members, who would wish to remain hidden, would retweet and like a tweet to which they could be directly traced. This could very well be a blunder on their part, but nonetheless remains unlikely to have happened.

This leads to a different theory wherein the young man's cheerful appearance in the photo is offset by a reference off-screen drama without context makes this tweet a smasher with the normies.

tldr; yes, there is no context. no, that doesn't meme it's meaningless. the lack of context makes it universally interpretable and people can find it funny for whatever reason they wish.

Edit: Move to Meme Research

Mod Edit: Moved to Meme Research

Last edited Dec 29, 2016 at 02:32PM EST

I feel like people confused about this meme because they don't understand that what Luciano considers "doin' it to 'em" is simply wearing a mostly pink outfit. Though not a terribly provocative choice of clothing, he feels that his stylistic choice for this photo is indeed very abrupt, and fly as fuck. The humor comes from his overconfidence in what he considers "doin it to 'em" (wearing a pink shirt and shorts) and what we traditionally think of when that concept is evoked. The sock tan amplifies this juxtaposition.

I think this one is getting around in a classic 'roasting' kind of fashion.

"You know I had to do it to em" implies that something swag or cool was performed by Lucky. However, his outfit implies that he might be the least cool person of all time. He looks preppy, cared for, weirdly smug, and the sock tan thing is prime roasting material all on its own.

All of these elements in the tweet + photo are prime for roasting. Even the setting of the picture in the suburbs adds a sense of 'ordinariness' when the tweet/caption tries to say otherwise.

The picture exerts an almost 'lame swag'. There's a lot of angles to go with this meme that are getting explored on Twitter lately.

Skeletor-sm

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