Presentation Edits

About

Presentation Edits are a genre of exploitable meme templates taken from images in which a person or cartoon is giving a presentation with a visual aid. Usually, these images are altered such that the text on the visual aid presents an argument or a controversial opinion, though there are many examples where the templates can be used to make humorous points or silly photoshops.

Origin

The earliest known presentation meme is Netanyahu's Cartoon Bomb. On September 27th, 2012, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu produced a cartoon image of a bomb while addressing the General Assembly at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, New York. During the speech, Netanyahu presented a diagram to illustrate the perceived threat of Iran's contentious nuclear program and his intention to shut it down before it became capable of manufacturing nuclear warheads. The presentation soon led to its most memorable moment when he drew a thick red line across the diagram to indicate the time frame of a potential military strike against Iran.

Within minutes of his address., tweets mentioning “Netanyahu” topped more than 17,000 mentions, according to Al Jazeera's coverage of the online reaction. Many others also pointed out the resemblance between the cartoon drawing of a bomb depicted in Netanyahu's diagram and the one used in the classic Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote cartoons.

Meanwhile on 4chan, a thread linking to the live cast of the Israeli prime minister's speech was posted on the /pol/ (politics) board, where an anonymous user replied with a screenshot of Netanyahu holding up the visual aid.

Spread

Donald Trump's White Sign

Donald Trump's White Sign is a photoshop meme featuring an image of 2016 Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump holding a white sign while speaking in front of the National Association of Home Buildings in mid August 2016. On August 11th, 2016, Donald Trump delivered a speech at the National Association of Home Buildings, where he held up a large white graph showing a sharp decline in home ownership in the United States (shown below).

That day, the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign's deputy digital communications director Rob Flaherty posted a screen capture of Trump holding a blank version of the graph with the instructions "go to town, folks" (shown below). In 24 hours, the tweet gained over 2,600 likes and 1,000 retweets.

Various Examples

Bernie Sanders Brings Tweets to the Senate

Bernie Sanders Brings Tweets to the Senate refers to a series of photoshops of an image of Bernie Sanders bringing a large, printed tweet of Donald Trump to the United States Senate while making an argument in favor of Obamacare. In the photoshops, Trump's tweet is replaced with various tweets and humorous images.

On January 4th, 2017, Bernie Sanders spoke to the United States Senate arguing in favor of keeping Obamacare, which Republicans had been working to repeal. In his argument, he brought a printout of a tweet made by Donald Trump that reads, "I was the first & only potential GOP candidate to state there will be no cuts to Social Security, Medicare & Medicaid. Huckabee copied me," illustrating that on the campaign trail, Trump promised to keep benefits promised by Obamacare. The image of Bernie standing next to the tweet, shown below, inspired photoshops.

The image first drew commentary on how people found it strange that tweets were being brought to the Senate floor. The person who brought the poster tweeted that Ted Cruz chuckled at him as he carried it to the Senate. This inspired Twitter user @HapaxLegoman to tweet an image of Sanders standing next to an awkward Ted Cruz tweet about his daugher's love of butter (shown below).

As that image and several other photoshops began spreading on Twitter, Gizmodo invited its readers to create photoshops of it, asking "What Large Poster Should Bernie Have Brought to the Senate Floor?" SelectAll covered the spread of the jokes on January 4th, 2017, and the tweets made Twitter Moments the following day.

Classic Gaming Emotion

Classic Gaming Emotion refers to an exploitable image of a woman giving a TED Talk about video games. In the image, she is showing the audience an image of a gamer as she says "…and this is a classic gaming emotion." In the exploitables, the image she is showing the audience is changed.

On March 17th, 2010, the TED Talks YouTube channel uploaded a talk given by Jane McGonical called "Gaming can make a better world." Early in her talk, she presents a portrait photograph of a gamer that she describes as exhibiting a "classic gaming emotion… This is a gamer who's on the verge of something called an 'epic win.'"

The moment did not become an exploitable until June of 2017. On June 27th, Tumblr user lothar uploaded screenshots of the moment from McGonical's talk, gaining 6,448 points in two days.

Various Examples

Paul Ryan's Powerpoint Presentation

Paul Ryan's PowerPoint Presentation is a photoshop meme mocking a PowerPoint presented by Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan to explain the GOP's proposed Obamacare replacement in early March 2017. On March 9th, 2017, Ryan delivered a 20-minute presentation containing charts and graphics, which described the Affordable Care Act as a "death spiral" (shown below). Additionally, the presentation contained a single slide about the GOPs plans for reform that said "There will be a stable transition to conservative health care reform."

Shortly after the presentation, Twitter user @Atrios retweeted a photo of Ryan's PowerPoint presentation along with the message "photoshoppers, start your engines" (shown below, left). Minutes later, Twitter user @twolf10 posted a photoshopped picture of Ryan presenting #TheDress (shown below, right).

Various Examples

You Guys Are Just Mean

You Guys Are Just Mean refers to an exploitable image of a teenager giving a powerpoint presentation wherein the main slide will state a potentially unpopular opinion while the subheading will read a variation of "You guys are just X."

The image originally read "I'm so tired give me an A" while the subheading read "Sad Students." The image was posted in various compilations of images showing "people who just don't care anymore" in the fall of 2015. For example, Pleated Jeans posted the image in such a compilation on October 14th, 2015 (shown below).

An early example of the exploitable variation made a point with Ke$ha's 'Tik Tok' was posted by user mutsukin in March of 2018 and gained over 64,000 notes, though the original post has been deleted (shown below, left). Another popular post from March of 2018 using the Legend of Zelda game Skyward Sword gained over 9,300 notes (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Lisa Simpson's Presentation

Lisa Simpson's Presentation is a series of photoshopped image macros featuring the character Lisa Simpson from the American animated comedy The Simpsons delivering a speech in front of a blank screen. Online, people add text to the screen and occasionally the people watching the presentation.

On March 11th, 2001, the season 12 episode of The Simpsons "Bye, Bye, Nerdy" aired in the United States. In the episode, the character Lisa delivers a presentation on bullying throughout time (shown below).

On May 16th, 2018, Redditor thomas22howe posted a screen capture of the scene to the /r/MemeEconomy subreddit. They titled the post, "Simpsons memes are always a good investment so BUY BUY BUY."

Various Examples

Spider-Man's Presentation

Spider-Man's Presentation, also known as Teaching Spider-Man, refers to an exploitable image of a person in a Spider-Man costume standing in front of a large white screen. Starting January 2019, edits of the image in which various jokes, statements and opinions were photoshopped onto the screen have been circulated online.

On January 30th, 2019, Chingford Foundation School's Twitter account posted a photograph of a person in Spider-Man costume holding a sheet of paper in front of an audience, with a large white screen behind them. The tweet gained over 3,300 retweets and 15,400 likes in one month.

In the reply section, multiple users posted edited versions of the picture with various jokes and statements photoshopped onto the screen.

Similar Memes

Other templates work similarly to presentation memes in that they are one-panel photoshops which present an argument on a blank piece of paper.

Double D's Facts Book

Double D's Facts Book is an exploitable image in which the character Edd (a.k.a. Double D) from the Cartoon Network series Ed, Edd n Eddy hold open a book of "facts" to reveal the author's opinion. The image consists of two panels, the first one showing the character Edd holding a red book with the title 'Facts' edited into it's cover, and the second panel, showing the open book, exposing its contents. Some variants also make use of other book titles.

On November 17th, 2003, Cartoon Network aired the episode of Ed, Edd n Eddy entitled "A Twist of Ed." The episode features a moment when the character Edd (Double D) holding a psychology book to the camera. The moment is the basis for the meme.

On July 3rd, 2017, Facebook user Damarko Berry posted an edited screen cap from the clip to the Ed, Edd, N Eddy Scamposting Facebook group (shown below).

Various Examples

Trump's First Order of Business

Donald Trump's First Order of Business is a photoshop meme based on a video clip of United States President Donald Trump holding up an open folder displaying his signature on an executive order.

On January 23rd, 2017, Trump signed several executive orders, including a memorandum to leave the controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership multilateral free trade agreement (shown below).

On January 23rd, Redditor guygoald submitted an animated GIF of Trump holding up a Dickbutt illustration to /r/HighQualityGifs. Within 48 hours, the post gained over 25,271 votes (89% upvoted) and 250 comments.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References