Krakatoa Eruption

About

Krakatoa Eruption refers to the news that several volcanos around the Krakatoa Archipelago in Indonesia erupted in April 2020. Following the event, a series of memes arose describing the news on a large number of websites and social media platforms, typically poking fun at the correlation between the volcanic eruptions and the coronavirus pandemic, further fueling the online discussion surrounding April 2020 disaster predictions and the apocalypse. Squidward’s “Captain Magma” superhero outfit from SpongeBob SquarePants, which is triggered by using the word “Krakatoa,” was also referenced in several of these memes.

Origin

On April 10th, 2020, numerous media outlets began reporting that the infamous Krakatoa volcano (now called Anak Krakatoa, or Child of Krakatoa) in Indonesia had erupted, spewing huge plumes of ash and lava into the air. In the following days, three additional volcanoes (Mount Kerinci, Semeru and Merapi) also began showing activity. The YouTube^[1] account for Brazilian newspaper The Jornal uploaded a video of the eruption (featured below) to its channel the day of the eruption and has since been viewed over 1.2 million times.

Spread

The news quickly began trending on a number of social media platforms where users referenced the eruption with memes. One such example was tweeted by Twitter^[2] user Vincent Blain on April 11th, 2020. The tweet (seen below) received 161 likes and 57 retweets.

Humans: "11 days into April and no new major problems so far? this doesn't seems right."#Krakatoa: "you are right." pic.twitter.com/skRehHwuOG

— Vincent Blain 🍁 (@Vincent___Blain) April 11, 2020

Twitter^[3] user MoodyAttia also posted a meme using an edited version of the “Coach Celebrating With His Team” GIF on April 11th, 2020. This tweet (shown below) was viewed over 3,000 times and liked another 56 times.

(2020 …………….#COVID__19#KrakatoaNext one #soon pic.twitter.com/tl1MXLft59

— محمود الشّورَىٰ (@MoodyAttia) April 12, 2020

On April 12th, 2020, Twitter^[4] user Torreznicola made reference to the Due To Less Pollution, X Is Now Visible meme series by saying they could see Krakatoa from Madrid. The image (seen below) received over 1,100 likes and 109 retweets.

I’m seeing the Krakatoa from Madrid. Is amazing . We’re the virus. pic.twitter.com/WQ77uNXKQ8

— Gabrielo (@Torreznicola) April 12, 2020

Similar memes continued to spread to other websites elsewhere online. On April 11th, 2020, the event was also discussed on 4chan^[5] when an anonymous user posted it to the /pol/ board (shown below).

Squidward Krakatoa

Taken from SpongeBob Squarepants season three, episode 52, several memes utilized the image of Squidward as Captain Magma, who activates his ability to shoot lava from his head by using the code word “Krakatoa.” One such example was posted by Redditor^[6] Naive_Drive to the r/dankmemes sub on April 10th, 2020. The post (seen below) received nearly 22,000 upvotes and 340 comments.

On April 11th, 2020, Twitter^[7] user RSmith_2800 also referred to Captain Magma in their tweet, alongside the caption, “We are beginning to see a flattening of the cur- 2020: #Krakatoa.” The tweet (shown below) was viewed over 137,000 times, liked 5,100 times and retweeted 1,700 times.

“We are beginning to see a flattening of the cur-2020: #Krakatoa pic.twitter.com/CFjJ7WdjiF

— Social Distancer (@RSmith_2800) April 11, 2020

Various Examples

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Search Interest

External References