About

Angela Merkel VR Goggles is a series of four-pane exploitables featuring German Chancellor Angela Merkel looks through virtual reality goggles. The user then adds something horrific or absurd in the third panel, leading to a fourth panel in which Merkel looks disturbed or excited, depending on the author's intended opinion.

Origin

On April 25th, 2016, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Barack Obama visited the Hannover Masse trade fair at the Hanover Fairground in Hanover, Lower Saxony, Germany. During their visit, they both tried on a pair of virtual reality goggles.^[1]

Spread

The following day, a series of four-panel exploitables began appearing on the German message board lachschon.de. The images separate the moment at the trade fair into four panels. One of the earliest, posted by Lachschon^[2] user baumarktfuzzy, featured a group of Muslim protesters holding up signs that read "Islam Will Dominate the World." The post (shown below, left) received a rating of 7.22 in two years.

That day, an anonymous Lachschon^[3] user posted a variant where in which Chancellor Merkel is looking the memes of herself. The post (shown below, center) received a rating of 7.1 in two years. Lachschon user WiWaWaldemar posted a variation where the eyes on the opposite side of the goggles appear on Merkel's face after removing the goggles. The post (shown below, right) received a 7.14 rating in two years.

Several months later, an anonymous 4chan posted a template of the meme in the /pol/ message board. The post (shown below) receibed more than 50 responses before deletion.

In January 2018, users on the /r/dankmemes subreddit revived the meme, posting variations through out the day. On January 22nd, Redditor^[6] Skapnslap posted a variation featuring the YouTube video "Evil Alligator Takes a Bath" in the third panel. The post (shown below, left) received more than 1,400 points (98% upvoted) and 30 comments in 24 hours. Throughout the next two days, more Redditors began posting versions of the meme.

Various Examples

Search Interest

Not Available.

External References