Yesterday on his Daily Wire program The Ben Shapiro Show, Ben Shapiro said he invented a mathematical formula to calculate the legitimacy of a government or any other kind of institution. After going viral over the last 24 hours, the video has since led many online to mock him and exploit an irresistible meme template.

I've laid out a formula to explain what makes a government legitimate.

Put simply, a government's legitimacy is tied to how much consent it has from the people and how little control it tries to exert over its people.

Western governments are learning this the hard way. pic.twitter.com/bAznD7VaqQ

— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) January 9, 2023

In the clip, Shapiro described his math by saying the numerator of the formula refers to positive things the government does (such as "S," representing "social solidarity," and "R," representing the government's responsiveness). The denominator then refers to "things the government can do to undermine its own authority," including "R," which represents the government's "regulatory strictness."

Shapiro did not say how he would assign numbers to each of these variables, nor did he account for differences within a population (a government may, for example, be stricter or more responsive toward a certain class of people). Shapiro also didn't mention considering other factors that may contribute to government legitimacy, nor did he define exactly what he meant by "legitimacy."

As the video continues, Shapiro used his formula to argue that Western governments should get smaller, because, according to his take, "consent matters more than control" for government legitimacy.

Ben Shapiro has created his own formula to compute governmental legitimacy pic.twitter.com/XjB1n7pJPz

— Jason Campbell (@JasonSCampbell) January 9, 2023

Perhaps unsurprisingly, clips and screenshots of the moment were critiqued or criticized by some internet users heading into today as it spread on platforms like Twitter.

I congratulate Shapiro for finally finding the one thing that truly unites all STEM experts and humanities experts: their hatred of this formula.

— Montrith Yaknow (@Montrith_Yaknow) January 10, 2023

Just checked, formula works in Microsoft Incel 👍👍👍

— MuZu (@The_WickerMuZz) January 10, 2023

Additionally, people have already begun memeing the screencap of Shapiro gazing at his formula, creating various Photoshop edits that replaced the original image.

Ben Shapiro made a formula to calculate the legitimacy of government. This is not a photoshop. Let the memes commence pic.twitter.com/eJSCYPqkAz

— Jabroney (@JabroneyTV) January 10, 2023

Winning a debate against ben shapiro by inhaling a buncha helium and talking faster than him pic.twitter.com/8yugbzk7kn

— Marshall Scott (@Marshall__Scott) January 10, 2023

pic.twitter.com/romsKFLanZ

— Quints Drawing of a Shark Eating Someone (@TheRedPeanut) January 10, 2023

Others simply mocked Shapiro for making the formula or joked about using it for their own purposes.

all i want in life is a reason to use the phrase “well, according to ben shapiro’s formula for governmental legitimacy…” https://t.co/kw8MQS71qG

— matty (@poastsbymatt) January 9, 2023

my formula for governmental legitimacy pic.twitter.com/yRncGzQwRV

— “Ben Shapiro” (Author of I Am A Parody Account) (@B3nSh4p1ro) January 9, 2023

Shapiro is undoubtedly one of the most-memed pundits in America, and the memes have notoriously expanded to include his sister too. Part of this may be due to him being very online — unlike some other political commentators, as Shapiro began his career blogging and posting and not standing in front of a TV camera. Another part of it may be due to the speed at which he talks and the virality of certain moments (like this one and his recent Glass Onion review) that people can't help but talk about.