The Brief: People are shouting out dead celebrities and historical figures in tweets that say what contemporary thing they would love if they were alive today.

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DEEP DIVE

Twitter users are posting tributes to dead celebrities and historical figures, speculating about which modern phenomena they would have enjoyed in “RIP/ you would have loved” memes.

These memes rose to prominence on Twitter in March 2021 with the format “RIP [dead celebrity] you would have loved [contemporary thing].” According to Know Your Meme, this format appeared as early as November 2020 before going more viral around March 19th 2o21.

Variations of this meme focus on who or what late celebrity or historical figure would have hated if they were alive today.