Be Like Bill
About
Be Like Bill is an exploitable stick figure illustration of a man named "Bill" using a desktop computer, accompanied by a parable praising Bill's choice to simply carry on after being provoked by a trigger while browsing the Internet. Since its emergence through English-language humor websites in late 2015, the single-pane comic has gone globally viral and spawned a large volume of derivative illustrations with similar messages highlighting other socially intelligent behaviors on the web and in real life.
Origin
The origin of the drawing is unknown, but it began showing up on forums like Funnyjunk[1] and Reddit[2] in October of 2015. The earliest instance of the image was in English, and was meant as an ironic jab at social justice warriors.
Precursor
On March 30th, 2010, JoyReactor user Anon uploaded a stick figure illustration of a character named "Tim" and a public service announcement (PSA) message praising his indifferent reaction to seeing offensive content while browsing the Internet.
In September 2011, this particular style of illustrations went viral with the launch of Australia's Queensland Rail PSA posters designed to educate the public on passenger etiquettes, which quickly became a subject of dozens of parodies (shown below).
Spread
On December 21st, 2015, an Italian Facebook page was created called Sii come Bill (Be like Bill).[3] The page, devoted to posted Italian version of the Be Like Bill meme, has received more than 226,000 likes in less than three weeks. A Spanish-language page, called Sé como José, was launched on January 2nd, and in less than four days has received more than 405,000 followers. Sé como José has received the most attention in the Spanish-speaking press, who have deemed it one of the first "virales" (memes) of 2016. In an interview with BuzzFeed, the anonymous administrator of the Spanish-speaking page said he decided to translate the Bill meme from Italian after seeing its popularity there.
Various Examples
Search Interest
External References
[1] Funnyjunk – comment on Man Jailed for disagreeing with feminist
[2] Reddit – be like bill
[3] Facebook – Sii come Bill
[4] Facebook – Sé como José
[5] Buzzfeed – “Sé como José” es la caricatura viral ideal para echar indirectas
[6] Tumblr – Be Like Bill
[7] Tumblr – "Tagged Results for 'Be Like Bill Meme":
[8] Tumblr – Tagged Results for 'Be Like Bill'
[9] Reddit – /r/BeLikeBill
[10] Imgur – Be like Bill
[11] Imgur – Be like Bill
[12] Wikipedia – Be Like Bill
[13] BeLikeBill.com – Best Be Like Bill Memes
[14] Vocativ – Viral Memes Urge Readers To "Be Like Bill," Not Like Bashar Al-Assad
[15] Uproxx – What Is The ‘Be Like Bill’ Meme And Why Is It Taking Over Facebook?
[16] Cheezburger – Be Like Bill Is the Public Service Announcement Your Facebook Friends Need
[17] Bored Panda – 20+ Hilarious Yet Clever Life Lessons From Bill
[18] The Chive – Looks like we should all try and ‘Be Like Bill’
[19] 9GAG – Top 10 Reasons Why You Should Be Like Bill
[20] Mandatory – 'BE LIKE BILL' IS SMARTER THAN THE AVERAGE MEME
[21] BBC – Why should you be more like Bill?
[22] The Mirror – What is #BeLikeBill? Everything you need to know about the meme taking over the internet
[23] Mic – Be Like Bill Meme Is Taking Over Facebook, Urging Users to Be Less Annoying
[24] New York Magazine – ‘Be Like Bill’ Is the Worst Thing on Facebook
[25] The Independent – Be Like Bill: The meme that's telling people on the internet how to behave
[26] BuzzFeed – This “Be Like Bill” Meme Passive Aggressively Calls Out People’s Social Media Habits
[27] The Daily Dot – Let's talk about Be Like Bill, the weirdest new Facebook meme
[28] Mashable – 'Be like Bill' is the passive aggressive meme dividing Facebook
[29] Washington Post – You absolutely should not ‘Be Like Bill,’ the smarmy stick-figure meme eating Facebook
[30] The Independent – 'Be Like Bill': Smarmy stick-figure meme takes over Facebook
[31] Facebook – Don't Be Like Assad
[32] Twitter – @BeLikeBill
[33] Twitter – Hashtag Results for #BeLikeBill
[33] Twitter – Hashtag Results for #DontBeLikeBill
[34] JoyReactor – Tim Is On the Internet
Top Comments
Mr. Man
Jan 06, 2016 at 05:33PM EST
Feo Takahari
Jan 06, 2016 at 05:51PM EST