Meryl Streep—film icon, three-time Academy Award winner, outspoken feminist, and beloved internet meme. At Sunday night's Oscars, the greatest living actress unintentionally gave the internet an update on an old meme she had been a part of in 2015.
Meme scholars will recall that the original version was born out of a screenshot of Streep hollering praise for Debbie Reynolds at the 2015 SAG Awards. The meme's historied legacy has since made its rounds, capturing the essence of people's collective enthusiasm when singing the latter part of various call-and-response style songs. For example:
And:
At Sunday's 90th Academy Awards ceremony, Streep's excitement produced a whole new version of her classic reaction image. Leave it to Meryl Streep to take on the leading role in her own meme's sequel. The internet reacted with fiery swiftness, not missing their chance to create a new meme out of Streep re-meme-ing her original. It was all very meta.
It was an exciting moment for professional internet jokesters, but in a total Streep move, she even took on the brave work of starring in another meme that night. Turns out a lot of people were drawing comparisons between Streep's ensemble and the Fairy Godmother from Shrek 2. Sunday night was truly a high point for internet culture.
