Laerte, Não Entendi / Laerte Eu Entendi

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About

Laerte, Não Entendi refers to a Portuguese catchphrase used by Twitter users to share their difficulty in understanding the comic strips posted by the Brazilian cartoonist Laerte Coutinho. The phrase was popularized in February 2023 and is often accompanied by image macros like wolf ripping shirt, Emo Wolf, or Sonic dying in the hospital with overlay text that says "Laerte, I don't understand." An opposite version of the meme also exists, in which people comment "Laerte, Eu Entendi" (Eng. Laerte, I understand) on the cartoons Laerte posts on Twitter.

Origin

On January 5th, 2023, the Brazilian cartoonist Laerte Coutinho^[1] posted a comic strip^[2] about a fish warning the other about "metaphors." The post (seen below) received 8,800 likes and 713 retweets in three months. A few days later, on January 10th, 2023, Twitter^[3] user @eholeozin commented on Laerte's cartoon with an image of a white face in the dark from the "The fog is coming" meme with the overlay text in Portuguese "Laerte eu não entendi" (Eng. Laerte, I don't understand). Although the post didn't receive any likes, it is the first usage of the catchphrase to indicate a fan wasn't able to interpret the meaning behind the cartoon.

Spread

The memes about Laerte's cartoons became popularized in mid-March 2023, as more users flooded the comment section of every post by the cartoonist with the catchphrase "Laerte, não entendi" and related image macros. For example, on March 18th, Twitter^[4] user @anavitoriads_ posted a wolf ripping shirt meme with the overlay text, gaining 196 likes and 11 retweets in two weeks (seen below).

Laerte's posts on Twitter became so flooded with memes that Twitter^[5] user @__gLiss joked about the situation with a dramatic crossroads meme showing the two most phrase options in memes, "Laerte, I don't understand" and "Laerte, I understand." The post (seen below), uploaded on March 22nd, garnered 556 likes and 33 retweets in two weeks.

Laerte's Response To The Memes

On March 29th, 2023, the cartoonist shared her thoughts about the memes saying she thinks the person who started it felt like there was "something more to be understood [in the cartoons] but the universe was playing tricks on them." The video was shared by Twitter^[6] user @doispontostil, receiving 598,700 views and 37 likes in one day (seen below).

The interview's video went viral and people started to post wholesome memes trying to explain to the cartoonist that they were doing that because of their appreciation of her art. For instance, on March 30th, Twitter^[7] user @Sukitabr posted an updated version of the wolf ripping shirt meme with text apologizing to Laerte. The post garnered 7,752 likes and 218 retweets in one day (seen below).

Translation: Laerte sorry for the bombardment of meaningless images in your posts, you are very sweet, we love your comics and we just want to interact. It's just the humor of this generation, joking with the fact that your comic strips are reflective. Your work is extremely important and we want to continue to appreciate it <3