The Brief: Cultural impact Twitter memes highlight underrated songs, movie scenes, and pop culture moments.

DEEP DIVE
Cultural Impact Twitter memes make comparisons between two things, suggesting that one had a significantly larger cultural impact than the other. In these memes, a tall black bar represents something with an immense cultural impact while a single line represents another thing with a minuscule impact on culture or society.
Usually, these memes point to cultural monuments that are undervalued by the mainstream, giving them the legitimacy and respect they deserve. This meme can also be a place for people to express their “unpopular opinions.”
These tweets contain varying levels of irony and seriousness in their statements about the cultural significance of everything from Shrek 2 to TikTok, to the part of “Shallow” where Lady Gaga sings “ah ahahaha hahaha hahahahaha…”Often, cultural impact memes will (mostly in jest) compare a single media clip’s cultural impact to “the entire music industry,” “Tarantino’s entire filmography,” or simply to “everything else.”
cultural impact:
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tom holland's literally anything
'umbrella' elsepic.twitter.com/3lThFktZCi— Jenna Guillaume (@JennaGuillaume) September 16, 2019
Shrek 2 vs. The Beatles
cultural impact:
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shrek 2 the beatles pic.twitter.com/namp4UPNab— ali (@flpsides) September 18, 2019
“Telephone” vs. the telephone
cultural impact
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telephone telephone by
by lady gaga alexander graham
ft beyoncé bell— Lady Gaga Lately ♈ (@AMENARTPOP) September 16, 2019
cultural impact:
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Lil Wayne’s verse Public Sex Ed
“You better wear
A latex, you don’t
want that late text,
that, “I think I’m
late” text— 1984’s George Whorewell (@EwdatsGROSS) September 18, 2019
One of several High School Musical comparisons:
cultural impact:
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█ _sharpay and troy and
ryan evans gabriella pic.twitter.com/NeR2YQgOfS— barbie estresa (@abbasupremacist) September 15, 2019
The “cool girl monologue” from Gone Girl:
cultural impact:
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the cool girl ben affleck’s
monologue filmography pic.twitter.com/TABQPZLWJn— riley (@filmgaythot) September 15, 2019
Kpop stans had quite a lot to say through this meme format. This is one of the dozens of viral memes related to the cultural impact of various Kpop bands, music videos, lyrics, etc.
cultural impact:
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wake up actualllyby bts waking up
— amri ✨lavie day✨ (@sopeggukk) September 19, 2019
cultural impact:
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this drake and the entire tv
josh scene industry pic.twitter.com/RWDMk8foWS— bia (@90skirishima) September 17, 2019
Why watch Pulp Fiction when TikTok exists?
cultural impact:
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this tiktok pulp fiction pic.twitter.com/Q8RXKz5tf6— copilot (@finnnothy) September 15, 2019
cultural impact:
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█ _The part in Star Spangled
Shallow where Banner
Lady Gaga goes
HAhhhhhhh ahhhAAAH
Ah ah, AAhhh Ahh
AAAHHHHAAA AAAA— Saddington 2 ✈️😔 (@hayley_hud) September 10, 2019