About

Judy Garland "Cancelled" refers to a viral post in which an X user discovered that child actress Judy Garland performed in blackface in a 1938 film, and then starred in The Wizard of Oz one year later. In August 2023, the post spawned viral reactions on X, also producing the Two Movies. A Year Apart. Same Bitch meme format.

Origin

On August 16th, 2023, X^[1] user @browardbully posted two images of child actress Judy Garland, one in blackface as Judy Bellaire in the 1938 musical comedy Everybody Sing, and one Dorothy Gale in the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, commenting, "two movies. a year apart. same bitch. shoutout to Gen Z for teaching me this." The post (shown below, left) garnered over 9,100 reposts, 5,900 quote tweets and 39,800 likes in two days. A community notes section was submitted to the tweet later, clarifying that Judy Garland was under a highly abusive management and had no agency over her decisions, and became a vocal supporter of The Civil Rights movement as an adult (shown below, right).

Spread

The post was followed by multiple viral reactions on X, with users writing that Judy Garland was abused and had no decision power as a child actor in the 1930s Hollywood, and quipping that Gen Z was finally "cancelling" the actress who died in 1969. For example, an August 17th post^[2] by user @Goldxn_Violin received over 1,800 reposts and 35,300 likes in one day (shown below, left). Later that day, X^[3] user @M1CHELANGEL0000 joked "oh her career is OVER," with the post gaining over 2,600 reposts and 57,700 likes in one day (shown below, right).

Later on August 17th, the original poster of the tweet wrote that their post wasn't meant to condemn Garland and was misinterpreted, adding that they would not apologize for it.^[4]

Starting on August 17th, users on X parodied the post by combining the caption "Two movies. A year apart. Same bitch." with images of same actors looking very differently in movies released one year apart. For example, X^[5] user posted images of actor Tom Cruise in the 2007 film Lions for Lambs and in 2008 film Tropic Thunder. The tweet received over 20 retweets and 490 likes in one day (shown below, left).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References