Cancel Culture Gun

Submission 39,284

Part of a series on Cancel Culture. [View Related Entries]

About

Cancel Culture Gun refers to a series of memes based on the political cartoon "Under Duress" by cartoon artist Pat Cross in which a man is asked a question while a gun labeled "Cancel Culture" is pointed at his head. Memes based on the cartoon gained popularity on Twitter and Reddit in early December 2020.

Origin

On December 2nd, 2020, cartoonist Pat Cross posted^[1]^[2]^[3] a political cartoon "Under Duress" in which a scientist is asked "Can people change their gender?" while a gun labeled "Cancel culture" is being pointed at his head. The cartoon received over 630 reactions and 350 shares on Facebook in two weeks.

On December 4th, 2020, Twitter^[4] user @hotcistakes reposted the image, writing, "It's me. I'm on the right, just offscreen" (shown below). The tweet received over 100 retweets and 1,400 likes in two weeks. On the same day, Twitter^[5] user @candyflissbblgm posted the earliest edit of the image, gaining over 180 likes (shown below, center). Also on the same day, Twitter^[6] user @totallynotflip posted the first viral edit, changing the question to "Is big chungus funny." The tweet (shown below, right) received over 3,900 retweets and 40,600 likes in ten days.

Spread

Later on December 4th, 2020, Redditor^[7] NHKomaiha posted @totallynotflip's meme to /r/okbuddyretard, adding a caption "Go on, say it's funny." The post received over 4,500 upvotes prior to being removed. In the following days, @totallynotflip's meme received further spread online through multiple reposts.^[8]

On December 9th, 2020, Twitter^[9] user @ech0astral posted a Who Was In Paris meme that received over 5,400 retweets and 74,900 likes in one week (shown below).

Following the viral spread of @totallynotflip's and @ech0astral's posts, the cartoon gained notable popularity as a meme format, particularly on Twitter.