The Brief: After winning Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay, Parasite director Bong Joon-ho made his Oscar trophies kiss, inspiring numerous memes.
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At the 2020 Academy Awards, Parasite made history as the first film not in English to win Best Picture. Director Bong Joon-ho, who won awards for Best Director and Best Original Screenplay in addition to Best Picture, was photographed at the Oscars making his trophies kiss. This moment inspired a flood of Bong Joon-ho Oscars kiss memes, many of which label the two trophies as people or things coming together.
These memes can be used to represent romantic connections as well as other kinds of connections, similar to handshake memes.
If you also made your Barbies kiss as a child, you are far from alone.
A reference to the “now kiss” meme:
now kiss pic.twitter.com/bSpUSYJiTN
— Sarah McGonagall (@sarahmcgphoto) February 10, 2020
As the two Oscars are both male figures, many social media users have claimed this image and corresponding Oscars kiss memes as statements about LGBTQ+ rights and love.
bong joon ho said gay rights !! pic.twitter.com/WX6sCyqy5B
— E. Alex Jung (@e_alexjung) February 10, 2020
congratulations pic.twitter.com/RZgzshfXUI
— Jill Gutowitz (@jillboard) February 10, 2020
what if we kissed 😳😳 and we were both bong joon ho’s oscars 😳 pic.twitter.com/AsawhtGw05
— ceo of baby chickens ♢ (@wlwaititi) February 10, 2020
what if we were oscar statues being held by bong joon ho and he made us kiss… ahaha just kidding….unless pic.twitter.com/P5e19jh8lY
— clem (@lividgoth) February 10, 2020
Bong Joon-ho’s wins inspired memes beyond just Oscars kiss memes, including jokes about him referring to the Academy Awards as a “very local” film festival, causing many to paraphrase this as calling the Oscars locals. Images of Joon-ho celebrating his win by giggling, kissing his Oscar, and saying that he would “drink till next morning” were also the subject of memes.