About

David Cameron’s Phone Call refers to a photograph of the British prime minister David Cameron on the phone with U.S. President Barack Obama which became the subject of a parody photo fad on Twitter in March 2014.

Origin

On March 5th, 2014, 3:18 PM (ET), a photograph of British prime minister David Cameron discussing the 2014 Crimean Crisis on the phone with President Obama was tweeted via Cameron's official Twitter account.^[6]

Over the course of the month, the photo has been retweeted over 9,000 times and received over 4,000 favorites.

Spread

The same day at 4:48 PM (ET), Twitter user richrich808^[7] tweeted a picture of himself on the phone using the hashtag #davecalls^[8] with the caption "Just paid my water bill," mocking the implied brag of Cameron's caption "I've been speaking to @BarackObama about the situation in Ukraine."

Soon, numerous celebrities including Rob Delaney^[9] and Patrick Stewart^[10] joined in on the meme via Twitter.

Also on March 5th, The Mirror^[11] and Buzzfeed^[12] reported on the meme with some of the best examples.

Notable Examples

Australian PM Tony Abbott's Phone Call

On April 9th, 2014 5:01 AM EST, Australian prime minister Tony Abbott's official Twitter account posted a photo of him getting an update on the search for Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 .^[1] Within 24 hours, the photo had gained over 120 favorites and over 180 retweets.

Shortly after Abbott's photo was tweeted out, Australian Twitter users began tweeting their own photos at Abbott pretending to be the person on the other end of the phone. At 5:30 AM (ET), Twitter user Slipperyseal^[2] tweeted a photo of himself holding an electric toothbrush to his ear as if he were speaking on the phone with Abbott.

Some participants substituted the phone with an alternate household item, such as a banana, a bottle and a video game controller.

On April 10th, several websites reported on the meme and compared it the one sparked by Cameron including Buzzfeed^[3], The Huffington Post UK^[4], and The Independent.^[5]

Search Interest

External References