Obamium

About

Obamium, also known as Obama Pyramid and Obama Prism, refers to a series of memes imagining various chemical substances and geometric figures consisting of and named after the former United States President Barack Obama. Spawned by a GIF circulated in ironic communities in August 2019, the meme saw viral spread in the following months.

Origin

The exact origin of the GIF is currently unconfirmed. On July 31st, 2019, iFunny user Barack posted a GIF of a spinning pyramid with its sides covered with a stretched photograph of Barack Obama (shown below).^[5] The post received over 150 smiles in four months.

On August 6th, 2019, Redditor alwod posted an image of a scientist holding a pyramid covered with a stretched image of Barack Obama and referring to it as "Obamium" to /r/okbuddyretard subreddit, with the post gaining over 22,800 upvotes in two weeks (shown below).^[1] The image referenced an earlier Finally, Synthetic Watermelon meme; particularly, "Finally, Watermelonium" version.^[2] On August 10th, 2019, Instagram user salad.snake reposted the image, with the post gaining over 52,200 likes in two weeks.^[3]

Spread

Starting on August 7th, multiple notable memes referencing "Obamium" were posted in /r/okbuddyretard subreddit. For example, on August 19th, 2019, Redditor TheGoldenPug reposted the pyramid GIF of a spinning pyramid with its sides covered with a stretched photograph of Barack Obama, referring to the object as "Obamid." The post gained over 17,700 upvotes in three days.^[4]

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References