Twitter Debates If Images Of LeBron Crying At Kobe Tribute Are Fair Game For Memes
Twitter users are debating whether memes made from images of LeBron James crying at a tribute for the late Kobe Bryant are fair game or beyond the bounds of good taste.
The internet has long had a habit of twisting serious topics into comedy, and this practice has at times brushed against pushback from the general populace. Vice infamously pleaded with the internet to not meme Childish Gamino's hyper-politically charged "This Is America", which naturally helped propel the song even further into memedom. More recently, the Coronavirus has led to memes which some have argued were inappropriate considering the seriousness of the situation.
Following NBA Legend's Kobe Bryant's untimely passing, Lakers star LeBron James was filmed crying ahead of the team's January 31st game during the national anthem and a tribute to Bryant.
NBA fans have long loved memeing crying superstars, but unlike Crying LeBron or Crying Jordan, James' tears here obviously have a deep connection to a tragedy that's still too recent for much of the internet to joke about. Nevertheless, after Bleacher Report tweeted stills of James' emotional moment, some users attempted to twist the pictures into comedy.
Others were quick to try and stem the tide of memes by declaring that the pictures were off-limits.
Some have even gone so far as to report memes using the pics to Twitter.
The reports are unlikely to result in action being taken by Twitter, but they're nevertheless a fascinating byproduct of the way the internet shapes grief, tragedy, and comedy.
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Steven The Pirate
People will joke about what they want no matter what anyone says. Trying to argue about it is an exercise in futility. If you really want it gone the best way is to ignore them and don't give any attention. Only issue with this is how big the people involved in this are. It's hard to ignore it with the amount of fans and figure heads that are personally affected by his death.
Personally using a picture of a man shedding tears for his friend is not something that I think would be funny at all. Mostly because it reminds me of the video of a guy visiting his best friends grave.
ralphie1231
I mean, we already have more than enough perfectly memeable photos of LeBron crying:
OppoQuinn
I'm all about dark humour, and I feel anything should be allowed to be joked about. I don't find this particular instance very funny (mostly because it's just a guy crying for his dead friend, not a lot of meme material there that isn't just filled by any generic "person crying" image), but there's no reason to report shit like this. It's the wrong way to go about it too; trying to report it or ban it or declare it off-limits. The right way to get rid of this potential meme is just ignore it, stop trying to make it more taboo (and thus a more tempting target for a joke), and just let it fade into obscurity in a week like almost everything else.