Reese Witherspoon Throwing Ice Cream

Submission 10,750

Part of a series on Big Little Lies. [View Related Entries]

About

Reese Witherspoon Throwing Ice Cream is a series of memes, both image macros and object labeled images, of actor Reese Witherspoon about to a throw an ice cream cone at co-star Meryl Streep while filming a scene of the America television drama series Big Little Lies.

Origin

On August 1st, 2018, an paparazzi photograph taken on the set of Big Little Lies began appearing online. The image featured Witherspoon winding back her arm to throw an ice cream cone at co-star Meryl Streep (shown below). The image was taken from the set of Big Little Lies season two.^[1]

Spread

That day, as the image began to spread to various news outlets, Twitter ^[2] user @mattybooz tweeted the image with the comment, "I am praying Reese pelts Meryl with that ice cream. #BigLittleLies." The post (shown below, left) received more than 440 retweets and 1,500 likes in two days.

Hours later, Witherspoon retweeted and commented on the image.^[3] She wrote, "Oh Matt! No need to pray. I got her ! 🍦🎯" The post (shown below, center) received more than 6,400 retweets and 59,000 likes in two days.

That day, others on Twitter began labeling the image. On August 2nd, Twitter^[4] user @NikiAlbon labeled the image as a "metaphor" for Brexit. The post (shown below, right) received more than 10 retweets and 100 likes in 24 hours.

Several media outlets reported on the meme, including USA Today,^[5] Elle,^[6] Harper's Bazaar,^[7] The Daily Dot ^[8] and more.