The Brief: The internet is the new frontier for cowboy and yee haw memes, which have been spreading online through various trends and formats.

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DEEP DIVE

Cow memes are out, but cowboy and cowgirl memes are in. On various platforms and groups throughout the web, people are adding elements of cowboy culture into their posts and memes.

The Black “Yee Haw Agenda”

The Yeehaw Agenda (also stylized Yee Haw Agenda) is a term coined by Bri Malandro on Twitter as a celebration of the reclamation of cowboy narratives by black creatives and celebrities. According to an article by Carla Aurelie on the subject, this trend in fashion has been popular in R&B and hip hop culture since the early 2000’s. The Yee Haw Agenda is a name for this trend, which is a way to highlight the significance of building black-centered counter-narratives about the Wild West. Although African Americans have historically played an important and prominent role in cowboy culture and continue to do so, the idea of the “American cowboy” has largely been whitewashed in Hollywood and mainstream pop culture portrayals.

Solange’s new album “When I Get Home” is a popular example of what the Yeehaw Agenda is about. In this audiovisual album, Solange draws extensively from her experience growing up in Texas alongside black cowboys and cowgirls.

Cardi B‘s cowgirl-inspired outfits in the Thotiana music video with Blueface, and that she wore for her performance at the Houston Rodeo have been widely reposted and celebrated as iconic Cardi B outfits and as a part of the Yeehaw Agenda.

The term Yee Haw agenda was coined on Black Twitter as a way to celebrate an intentional reappropriation of cowboy fashion to recenter black folks in cowboy narratives. However, the term has since been appropriated elsewhere as a way to refer more generally to a rise in popularity of cowboy-inspired styles.

#YeeHawChallenge

The #yeehawchallenge on TikTok is a video meme format in which people transform into cowboys or cowgirls to the song “Old Town Road” by Lil Nas X.

 

You’ve Yeed Your Last Haw

A still image of character Dean Winchester taken from an episode of the television series Supernatural has been turned into a Reddit meme. This image macro shows Dean saying “you’ve yeed your last haw,” usually as a threat or remark on someone’s impending doom.

Can we get an F in the chat from r/memes

More Cowboy And Yee Haw Memes

Along with the rise of the Yee Haw Agenda and the popularity of Red Dead Redemption 2, cowboy themed memes have been popular online throughout the past several years. The juxtaposition of scenes from an old-timey wild west with internet memes adds a layer of comedy, suggesting that the internet is the frontier of 2019. Yee haw!

Wot In Tarnation:

what in tarnation

A version of the shoe flip challenge:

Y’all really gonna scroll past this without saying howdy from r/aww

A “Howdy I’m The Sherif Of ____” Emoji Twitter Meme: