I Am the Senate

About

I Am The Senate is a quote from Chancellor Palpatine in Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith that grew into a popular phrasal meme in Star Wars-related subreddits.

Origin

In Star Wars Episode III, Chancellor Palpatine is approached by Mace Windu who intends to arrest him. After telling the Chancellor, "The senate will decide your fate," Palpatine replies, "I am the Senate" (shown below).

Spread

The quote had commonly been used in sheev posting in the years following the film. For example, on September 2nd, 2016, an image macro was uploaded to me_irl^[3] referencing the joke. On September 15th, 2016, the Facebook page Just Jedi Things^[2] posted a 3 Drinks Later variation using Palpatine captioned "I Am The Senate." On December 27th, 2016, TheDSTudge^[1] posted a 3 Drinks Later meme using an image macro of Palpatine saying he is the Senate to /r/prequelmemes. This was one of the earliest examples of what would grow into wide spread of "I Am The Senate" memes (shown below).

At the beginning of 2017, many more variations of "I Am The Senate" memes were posted on various meme-focused subreddits such as /r/dankmemes, /r/prequelmemes, and /r/me_irl. On January 27th, The Daily Dot^[4] included "I Am The Senate" in a list of several memes taken from Revenge of the Sith that had been growing popular on Reddit that month. On April 16th, user DreadfortLord uploaded one of the most popular "I Am the Senate" memes, gaining over 2,400 points (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References