The Brief: A satirical illustration titled "The Campus Seen Through The Eyes of US Conservatives" has been circulating online and inspiring memes.
DEEP DIVE
On May 11, 2020, memes inspired by an illustration from Current Affairs magazine by artist Chelsea Saunders called “The Campus Seen Through The Eyes of US Conservatives” went viral on Twitter.
tag yourself i’m teaching a class in the basement of the college of grievance studies pic.twitter.com/5bY6MW4mfh
— quasimatt (@quasimatt) May 11, 2020
The illustration satirizes conservatives’ views of college campuses as excessively-liberal environments where free speech is thwarted. It includes a statue of Mao Zedong, a school mascot called the “Social Justice Warriors,” “pronoun police,” a bar called “Cuck Zone,” Gritty, and other emblems of liberal ideals.
Twitter users have been tagging themselves as different portions of the illustration and creating comedic memes based on it. Without context, some people interpreted the comic to be a political statement made by U.S. conservatives themselves, leading them to ridicule the ideas presented without knowing that the artist’s original intent was to do the same thing. Memes about this drawing caused the phrase “Cuck Zone” to trend on Twiter on May 11th.
The Campus Memes
Most of these memes remark at how this campus actually looks like it’d be loads of fun.
Everyone's taking about the Cuck Zone but no ones taking about Gritty pic.twitter.com/0rqKw6ZiQ3
— Brodoof (@Brodoof) May 11, 2020
What if we kissed in the cuck zone… haha just kidding.
Unless pic.twitter.com/HcnJcYw7ku
— Qwert (@Qwertgrapes) May 11, 2020
The illustration’s resemblance to a Where’s Waldo drawing didn’t go unnoticed by this Twitter user who “found” Waldo in the dining hall.
Found him. He's in the dining hall to the right of the cuck zone. pic.twitter.com/11zXMFekAF
— icehilism (@icehilism) May 11, 2020
boys, clear my calendar. start with shots at the cuck zone then ease right into an interfaith orgy pic.twitter.com/7Qy3lqil9X
— Dan Stevens (@thisdanstevens) May 11, 2020
I would definitely attend this university. I bet the tuition is free, too. I could see myself smoking a joint by the Marx fountain before I head inside to get some radical feminist praxis and then go hang out at the Cuck Zone. Chill af. pic.twitter.com/oyeTCNayId
— Sergio Siano 🦺 (@SergioJSiano) May 11, 2020
i’m the cheerleader with the rat army pic.twitter.com/fohnf0yPbs
— queen of bitch island (@kittynouveau) May 11, 2020
I’m the guy staring at the chonky squirrel pic.twitter.com/Un0BhMr9V0
— Cheam Creems 🌈 (@copper_roses) May 11, 2020
I’m naked playing drums in the quad pic.twitter.com/6Q2PEXOLnp
— 🗣 uma!!! (@superumapuma) May 11, 2020