Government: Work From Home

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About

Government: Work From Home, also known as Government: Work At Home, refers to a series of memes referencing government officials around the world pushing people to work remotely as quarantines and lockdowns are put in place to help stop the spread of the coronavirus outbreak. The theme was primarily seen on Twitter and Reddit in mid-March 2020, and is typically used to show various occupations that are impractical when done from the confines of one’s home as a reaction image.

Origin

Twitter^[1] user @wan23danny (posted by MGAG) is believed to be the first creator of the format after uploading a collection of examples on March 17th, 2020. In the tweet (shown below), a series of four variants were posted using the hashtag #WorkFromHome, and the collection received 153 retweets and 191 likes.

practice makes perfect #mco #WorkFromHome meme by @wan23danny pic.twitter.com/TGJrD0ucHh

— MGAG (@My_MGAG) March 18, 2020

Spread

On March 19th, 2020, Redditor^[2] EfficaciousBean posted the first example of the format to Reddit on the r/memes sub. Uploaded under the title “But make sure you get in the trunk for social distance". The meme (shown below) received nearly 60,000 upvotes and 169 comments -- spawning the trend on the platform as several other versions were created in its wake.

The format for these types of memes continued to spread in the following days as users from other subreddits began joining in and adding new careers. Roughly 20 minutes later on March 19th, 2020, Redditor^[3] Shreyash_jais_02 posted a variant to the r/dankmemes sub depicting a pilot working from home throwing a paper airplane. The meme (seen below) was upvoted over 64,000 times and gifted several Reddit awards.

Redditor^[4] CarKid5508 posted another version on March 19th, to the r/dankmemes sub featuring railroad workers. The upload (shown below), was upvoted almost 40,000 times.

Another example reached the front page of the r/memes sub after Redditor^[5] AceLeader2998 created a meme showing an archaeologist working from home that same day. The post (seen below), received over 145,000 upvotes, numerous Reddit awards and 437 comments.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References