About

Due To Less Pollution, X Is Now Visible, also known as Because Of The Lockdown, X Can Now Be Seen, refers to the news that lockdowns attempting to curb the coronavirus pandemic have resulted in reduced pollution around the world. Following this announcement from media publications in March/April 2020, a series of memes arose describing the increased visibility from a reduction in smog, typically featuring photoshopped images of fake objects or unrealistic landscapes.

Origin

In late March 2020, several major media outlets released the news that, as a result of decreased industrial activity around the world due to coronavirus lockdowns and quarantines, air pollution had significantly dropped in many areas. The news began trending shortly after across a range of social media platforms, where people posted examples of beautiful landscapes previously shrouded in smog. One such example picturing the Himalayas viewed from India was shared to a number of sites, including Reddit,^[1] where it was upvoted over 100,000 times on April 4th, 2020 (seen below). As a result of images like this being spread, many online quickly began photoshopping fake versions with humorous captions and absurd objects in the sky.

Spread

Various examples of these memes continued to spread in the following days as users on Reddit and Twitter created their own versions. On April 5th, 2020, particularly stemming from Twitter users in India, many of these fakes were published on the platform. One such example comes from Twitter^[2] user Crazy Memer, who posted an image of Dubai’s Burj Khalifa in the background of the Marine Drive in Mumbai. The tweet (shown below) received 240 likes, 38 retweets and 22 comments.

Due to less pollution burj khalifa is visible from marine drive 😍 pic.twitter.com/ayggCEkZI2

— Crazy Memer (@_crazy_memer) April 5, 2020

Also on April 5th, 2020, Twitter^[3] user Iyervval uploaded multiple examples of the trend to their page (seen below), receiving 232 comments, 37 retweets and 15 comments.

Indian #pollution humour in the times of #covid pic.twitter.com/v3ZSDWVjRo

— Abhijit Iyer-Mitra (@Iyervval) April 5, 2020

On Reddit, numerous variations of the theme were then posted on the site in early April 2020. One such example comes from Redditor^[4] UltraGaborel on April 6th, 2020, to the r/memes sub. This post (shown below), which shows the solar system edited into the sky, was upvoted over 47,000 times and commented on 223 times.

Redditor^[5] BitCoinGrinding posted another version on April 6th, 2020, to the r/PrequelMemes sub that showed fictional Star Wars’ planet Naboo experiencing a similar improvement in visibility alongside reduced air pollution. The meme (seen below) received over 47,000 upvotes, 137 comments and a couple of Reddit awards.

On April 5th, 2020, Redditor^[6] crimson_dog posted an example, that has since been altered to apply to a range of places/countries by other online users, depicting the Earth being viewed in the sky from a country. This post (shown below) received nearly 60,000 upvotes.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References