Shotguns in WW1 / Kaiser Mad

Submission 27,338

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About

Shotguns In WW1 or Kaiser Mad refers to a series of history memes parodying the use of shotguns by the American soldiers in the World War 1, which was deemed illegal and protested by the Germans. Initially referenced in history memes communities such as /r/HistoryMemes subreddit, the historic precedent gained explosive popularity in memes iFunny in late June 2020, evolving into jokes about Kaiser Wilhelm II getting angry and mad about shotguns.

Historical Context

The memes about use of shotguns by the American troops during World War I mainly refer to the use of the Winchester Model 1897 (Winchester M97) and Winchester Model 1912 (Wincheser M12) pump-action shotguns in the trench warfare, which was deemed inhumane and illegal by the Germans under the 1907 Hague Convention on Land Warfare.^[1] Germany, led by Kaiser Wilhelm the II, voiced a protest against the use of shotguns by the Americans, which was rejected by the American side. Germany then issued a threat that all captured American soldiers armed with a shotgun would be punished. The United States responded with a counterthreat against German soldiers who wielded flamethrowers and serrated bayonets.

Origin

The earliest viral meme referencing the use of shotguns in the WW1's and the Germany's reaction to it was posted by Redditor^[2] thatguymetonce on October 16th, 2018. The post received over 33,400 upvotes in six months (shown below).

Spread

In the October 2018 – March 2019, the historic precedent has been referenced in the /r/HistoryMemes subreddit several times, but did not achieve significant spread. For example, on October 27th, 2018, Redditor^[3] LuckyD923 posted a meme which received over 400 upvotes in six months (shown below, left). On January 19th, 2018, Redditor^[4] Stalker-Six posted a Fallout meme which gained over 10,800 upvotes in six months (shown below, right).

The precedent saw its first spike in meme popularity in late March – early April 2019 when a number of viral memes referencing it were posted in /r/HistoryMemes and received further spread online. For example, on March 30th, 2019, Redditor^[5] masonzxx posted an "Ol' Reliable" meme which received over 17,900 upvotes in six months (shown below, left). On April 2nd, Redditor^[6] darkdope reposted a meme that gained over 3,200 upvotes in six months, with a next-day repost in /r/HistoryMemes^[7] gaining additional 4,000 upvotes (shown below, right). On April 2nd, Redditor^[8] KrebStar9300 posted an inquiry about the influx of memes referencing the use of shotguns in World War I.

In the following year, the precedent remained a popular reference in history meme communities such as /r/HistoryMemes with occasional reposts in mainstream meme communities. For example, on April 19th, 2019, iFunny^[9] user Wolf_Actual reposted a meme which received over 83,200 smiles in one year. A May 8th, 2019, repost of the same meme in /r/dankmemes^[10] received over 14,500 upvotes.

Kaiser Mad

On May 2nd, 2020, iFunny^[11] user DarwinIV posted a Yes Chad / Wojak meme in which a Soyjak imagines himself a Chad while talking about the historic precedent, saying "Did you guys know we used SHOTGUNS in WWI and they made the Kaiser mad?" The meme received over 4,500 smiles in two months (shown below, left). On June 18th, iFunny user loquat posted a Descriptive Noise meme that received over 470 smiles in one week (shown below, right).

The meme did not achieve viral spread on iFunny until in mid-June iFunny user SHAQ started spamming the meme in the iFunny Discord server, ultimately getting banned by the admins. Starting on June 23rd, SHAQ^[12]^[13]^[14] and PaddyV62 started posting and repubbing multiple memes about the precedent (examples shown below, left, center and right), with other iFunny users joining in on the trend with GIF captions and other types of memes.

On iFunny, the format evolved further into memes about Kaiser Wilhelm II getting mad about Americans using shotguns. For example, on June 23rd, iFunny^[15] user Dronom posted a GIF Caption that received nearly 700 smiles in two days (shown below, left). On June 25th, iFunny^[16] user Thayr posted a GIF caption that gained over 680 smiles in one day (shown below, right).

On June 24th, 2020, iFunny^[17] user Vulgate called for a raid on /r/HistoryMemes, suggesting to spam a popular instance of "Shotguns in WW1" meme in the subreddit. The post received over 970 smiles.

Kaiserchino

Kaiserchino refers to a series of image macros, videos and GIFs that combine elements from a number of memes previously popularized on iFunny, most notably Dunkaccino and Kaiser Mad. The meme gained viral popularity on iFunny in September 2020.