There's a meme on the rise that's perfect for shifting the blame to someone else.
If the American Chopper meme is the format for facilitating hard-hitting discussions about toxic masculinity and U.S. interventionist policies, Eric Andre's new "Who Killed Hannibal?" meme is for refusing to take accountability.
The meme comes from The Eric Andre Show, a surreal late night comedy parodying public access television.
In this scene, which originally aired in November 2013, Andre transitions from a chat about climate change to asking the audience, "Speaking of climate change, when is Hannibal Buress gonna start thinking about some underwear, am I right, ladies?"
As the crowd cheers, Andre pulls out a gun and promptly shoots Buress in the torso. When he's finished unloading two clips into the now-dead Buress, Andre appears to have a moment of baffled remorse.
"Who killed Hannibal?" he whispers.
In the past week, the scene has been reappropriated to describe situations where institutions of power do something toxic, and then blame it on the innocent or uninvolved.
The meme, as one poster in r/MemeEconomy irately points out, wrongly replaces "Who killed Hannibal?" with "Why would X do this?"
"Plz stop. It's detracting an otherwise hilarious meme," the OP wrote.
The meme is still pretty funny with either phrase, whether it's criticizing baby boomers for blaming everything on millennials (what will they ruin next?) or mocking Trump for his tendency to blame factual reporting on "fake news."
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The format works perfectly when discussing history's screw ups and mysteries, like addressing the conspiracy theory that claims the CIA killed John F. Kennedy.
Or when the German parliament building just happened to catch fire during Hitler's rise to power, giving him the political loophole to suspend constitutional rights and arrest Communists.
And the meme has even taken on more complex versions of itself, like with this explanation of the American Revolution.
Like the U.S. oil memes, the "Who killed Hannibal?" meme has become something of a lighthearted political commentary on dark moments of history. This one brings up Turkey's continuing denial of the Armenian genocide.
But not all of the meme's many manifestations are political critiques. It extends to fandoms, too.
We can't wait to see what we learn next from this meme.
