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Don Cheadle Word of the Day
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About
Don Cheadle's Word of the Day are iFunny and Twitter gimmick accounts that post actor Don Cheadle's Wikipedia photograph captioned with a different word every day. Originally an iFunny account launched in 2019 that went later defunct, the gimmick was picked up by a Twitter account launched in July 2020. The joke was spawned by a combination of factors, most notably by a viral 2017 tweet by Cheadle in which he used the phrase "desiccated, duplicitous harridan."
History
On October 11th, 2017, actor Don Cheadle quote retweeted[1] a post by the Senior Counselor to Donald Trump's Kellyanne Conway, calling her a "desiccated, duplicitous harridan" (original tweet no longer available; screenshot shown below). The tweet received over 2,900 retweets and 9,800 likes prior to being deleted.
In replies, a number of Twitter users joked about Don Cheadle's using obscure words in his tweet. On that day, Twitter[2] user @Squid25 made a tweet in which he compared Don Cheadle's tweet with posts made by "word of the day" accounts on social media (shown below, left). On October 12th, Twitter[3] user @cosler compared Don Cheadle's tweet against Dictionary.com's Word of the Day page. Both tweets remained unnoticed.
On July 20th, 2018, Twitter[4] user @tresdesser tweeted about Don Cheadle's photo on Wikipedia, writing that they couldn't stop laughing at it. The tweet received over 20 retweets and 110 likes. On March 12th, 2019, Twitter[5] user @jamieloftusHELP made another tweet about Don Cheadle's Wikipedia photo, with their tweet gaining over 2,500 retweets and 29,500 likes.
Approximately in July or early August 2019, the now-deleted iFunny gimmick account Don Cheadle Word Of The Day was created, making posts combining the Wikipedia photograph of the actor with a different word every day. The remaining evidence of the account's activity is an August 8th, 2019, GIF caption by iFunny[6] user cumpiss (shown below, left), several reposts of the image macros by Twitter[7][8][9] user @HamGrabs made between September 7th and 16th that year (shown below, center and right) and witness accounts.
While the exact date when the original account was removed is unknown, starting in September 2019 several copycat accounts were created on iFunny,[10][11] including DonCheadleWordofTheDay[12] (example posts shown below, left, center and right). As of May 7th, 2021, DonCheadleWordofTheDay, launched on October 31st, 2020, is the most popular active copycat of the original account on the iFunny app with over 1,100 subscribers.
In late April 2020, a post presumably made by the original iFunny account captioned "Don Cheadle word of the day: agony" went viral with multiple reposts (shown below, left).[13][14] On July 18th, 2020, Twitter[15] gimmick account Don Cheadle Word Of The Day (@CheadleWOTD) was created, recreating the "agony" post as its first tweet (shown below, center).[16] On October 5th, 2020, the account posted its first viral tweet[17] that received over 900 retweets and nearly 4,000 likes, with the macro captioned "pain" (shown below, right).
Features
Both iFunny and Twitter gimmick accounts post image macros combining the 2011 photograph of actor Don Cheadle used in his Wikipedia entry (with exceptions) with a caption containing a new word every day.
Highlights
Starting in January 2021, a number of tweets made by @CheadleWOTD went viral, particularly those referencing current events. For example, on January 8th, @CheadleWORD[18] featured "suspended" as its word of the day, referencing the suspension of the United States President Donald Trump from social media. The tweet received over 590 retweets and 3,900 likes (shown below, left).
On May 4th, 2021, @CheadleWOTD[19] held a user poll in an attempt to figure out a solution for Twitter automatically selecting the bottom part of the images for tweet thumbnails, therefore spoiling the memes before they are opened. On May 5th, Twitter made an update that changed the relevant algorithm,[20] with the issue resolving itself. On May 5th, Twitter[21] user @heimdallstan made a tweet highlighting the peculiarity of the situation (shown below, right).
Traffic
As of May 7th, 2021, the Twitter gimmick account had over 92,800 followers. iFunny account DonCheadleWordofTheDay, the most popular copycat of the original iFunny account, had over 1,100 subscribers.
Related Memes
Sex 2
Sex 2 refers to a series of memes revolving around an imagined sequel to sex. Stemming from a joke which went viral in October 2017, in November 2019 Sex 2 regained popularity in /r/okbuddyretard subreddit as a certain highly-anticipated media product developed by actor Don Cheadle.
Search Interest
External References
[1] Twitter – @DonCheadle
[4] Twitter – @tresdessert
[5] Twitter – @jamieloftusHELP
[10] iFunny – DonCheadlesWordOfTheDay
[11] iFunny – DonCheadleDaily
[12] iFunny – DonCheadleWordofTheDay
[13] Instagram – reallyfreakinbadcontent
[14] Reddit – Don chetle
[15] Twitter – @CheadleWOTD
[16] Twitter – @CheadleWOTD
[17] Twitter – @CheadleWOTD
[18] Twitter – @CheadleWOTD
[19] Twitter – @CheadleWOTD
[20] Verge – Twitter is ruining the open for a surprise meme with better image crops
[21] Twitter – @heimdallstan
