Calvin Candie

About

Calvin Candie is a fictional character portrayed by Leonardo DiCaprio in the 2012 Quentin Tarantino-directed western film Django Unchained. In the film, Calvin is an eccentric and unpredictable slave-owner. His various facial expressions and turns of phrase have inspired numerous reaction images and memes, including You Will? and Leonardo DiCaprio Laughing.

Origin

On December 11th, 2012, the film Django Unchained premiered in the United States.^[1] Prior to its release, the film's trailer, released on June 6th, 2012, received more than 16 million views in less than one decade.

Spread

Shortly after the film's release, the character Calvin Candie began sharing memes featuring the character. For example, on January 9th, 2013, Cheezburger ^[2] user Tr0d06 shared a meme that featured the Candie line "Gentlemen, you had my curiosity, but now you have my attention." The post received more than 2,800 upvotes in just over seven years (shown below, left).

Three months later, on March 29th, GIPHY ^[3] published a GIF featuring the character (shown below, right).

Zoom and Nod Reaction

On June 10th, 2016, a GIF of a moment from the film in which the camera quickly zooms in on the character as he nods was published on GIPHY^[4] (shown below).

Four years later, the meme went viral on Russian social network VK. On January 3rd, 2020, meme community MemeBlog^[5] posted the GIF with the caption "Iran: 'Well, finally the new 2020th year has come. We really hope that this year we will manage to establish relations with the United States' / Trump January 3." The post received more than 13,000 views and 1,000 reactions (shown below, left).

Over the next few weeks, MemeBlog community members posted more memes based on the GIF, with the meme later spreading to major meme communities on VK. For example, on January 12th, VK^[6] meme community Orlyonok (Орлёнок) posted a version with the caption, "Me: *drinking coffee and lighting a cigarette* / Shit in my ass." The post received more than 100,000 views and 1,700 reactions (shown below, center). That day, MemeBlog^[7] shared the post, which received more than 23,000 views and 800 reactions (shown below, right).

You Will?

On January 28th, 2020, Redditor ^[8] Exrizy posted a two-panel reaction image from the film. Under the headline "George Lucas Reportedly Down to Return To Star Wars, But Wants Full Control," they posted an object-labeled meme of Candie labeled "Fans after 8 years of Disney" and the subtitle "You will?" The post received more than 22,000 points (97% upvoted) and 270 comments in less than two weeks (shown below, left).

Over the next two weeks, other Redditors continued to share variations of the meme (examples below, center and right).

Leonardo DiCaprio Laughing

Leonardo DiCaprio Laughing is an image macro of Calvin Candie played by Leonardo DiCaprio in the 2012 film Django Unchained which features the character smiling while holding a drink. The image gained Photoshop edits starting in November 2017 and became a popular reaction image in August 2020 on Reddit.

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External References