Meet the Elite Couples Breeding to Save Mankind

Submission 24,165

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About

Meet the Elite Couples Breeding to Save Mankind refers to parodies of an April 2023 headline by The Telegraph that covered wealthy San Francisco "pronatalists" who believe they have a moral imperative to have multiple children to save humanity. The article proved controversial, as some believed the concept of propagating "elite" families has roots in eugenics and neo-Naziism. This led to the headline becoming a copypasta meme that spawned parodies on social media around mid-April in which the article's title was paired with humorous examples of "elite couples" from popular culture.

After the article widely circulated online, it was discovered that couple covered in the article had gone viral in 2013 by proposing on Reddit.

Origin

On April 17th, 2023, The Telegraph^[1] profiled the "pronatalist" movement, which is the belief that humanity must have more children to save civilization. Of note, the piece cites Elon Musk as an influential figure who ascribes to the belief. The article largely focuses on Simone and Malcolm Collins, two San Francisco entrepreneurs who founded Pronatalist.org. Images of the Collinses from the piece began spreading on Twitter shortly after, along with The Telegraph's headline (shown below).

Spread

As the piece spread on Twitter, many joked about the Collinses' looks, questioning why they felt they were "elite" enough to populate the earth with their offspring. For example, on April 18th, 2023, Twitter user @BotanyGeek^[4] tweeted, "The history of eugenics is fascinating for so many reasons… None more so than when we consider which people think of themselves as genetically superior," gaining over 620 retweets and 7,600 likes in one day (shown below, left). On April 17th, user @TabitaSurge^[5] then posted a joke implying the pair looked like fascists, gaining over 90 retweets and 1,000 likes in two days (shown below, right).

The headline quickly proved ripe for parody, as users on social media began reposting it with humorous images of duos, often from pop culture. For example, on April 18th, 2023, Twitter user @maggieserota^[2] posted a parody featuring Margot and Todd from National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, gaining over 720 retweets and 14,000 likes in one day (shown below, left). Also that day, Twitter user @NataliaAntonova^[3] posted the headline featuring the Lannisters from Game of Thrones, gaining over 470 retweets and 5,700 likes in a similar timeframe (shown below, right).