Reese Witherspoon 2020 Challenge

Submission 17,931

About

The Reese Witherspoon 2020 Challenge is an exploitable image macro meme featuring images of the poster on a nine-month calendar, running January through September. With each passing month, the images show the poster's mood deteriorating. Actor Reese Witherspoon started the meme in August 2020, inspiring other celebrities to participate with photos of their various film and TV roles.

Origin

On August 4th, 2020, Reese Witherspoon posted on Instagram^[1] the nine-month calendar filled with images from her various film and TV roles, running from expressions of joy to grief and exhaustion. The post received more than 1.4 million likes in less than three days (shown below).

Spread

After Witherspoon posted the meme on Twitter,^[2] which received more than 188,000 likes and 33,000 retweets, other celebrities joined the challenge. For example, Mindy Kaling tweeted^[3] an example with the caption "Pretty much. Inspired by @ReeseW." The tweet received more than 67,000 likes and 11,000 retweets in less than three days (shown below, left). Kerry Washington tweeted^[4] an example, receiving more than 35,000 likes and 6,500 retweets in less than three days (shown below, center). As did Viola Davis who tweeted,^[5] "I’d have to agree with @ReeseW, @mindykaling & @kerrywashington about 2020 thus far!" The tweet received more than 90,000 likes and 19,000 retweets in less than two days.