About

In the Court of the Crimson King is the debut album by progressive rock band King Crimson. Its cover has become an iconic image in online culture and has appeared in Album Cover Parodies numerous meme formats.

Origin

In the Court of the Crimson King was released October 10th, 1969.^[1] Its album cover was designed by Barry Godber,^[2] representing the character "21st Century Schizoid Man," the namesake of one of the tracks on the album.

Spread

The cover's striking image lent itself to quick parodies, including an appearance in Hamster Jovial in the early 70s (shown below, left). The album saw a rise in popularity when it was sampled on Kanye West's 2010 song "Power."^[3] This was referenced in a meme posted to AsylumNation^[4] on May 21st, 2011 (shown below, right).

One popular series of parodies sees popular characters drawn in the style of the album cover. Examples include Jake from Adventure Time (shown below, left) and Spongebob Squarepants (shown below, right).

Other edits have used the album cover on pictures of the Jojo's Bizarre Adventure character King Crimson. These include posts on /r/shitpostcrusaders (shown below, left) and Tumblr (shown below right).

Related Memes

King Crimson (JoJo Stand)

King Crimson is a stand, a supernatural ability represented by a humanoid spirit, featured in the popular Japanese manga and anime series JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. Due to its angry appearance, based on the cover artwork of the 1969 album In the Court of the Crimson King, and confusing powers, the stand has become a popular subject within the JoJo's Bizarre Aventure fandom in discussions, memes and fan art.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References