Star Wars Memes

Will Butler:

We've been in the habit of celebrating particular holidays on the podcast. Caroline, we got a great response on your weed memes that you generated for 419. But we've got a holiday coming up that might not be on everyone's calendar, it's a particular Star Wars holiday, right?

Caroline Desrosiers:

Yeah, it's a big one. May 4th, it's happening this week.

Will Butler:

May 4th be with you.

Caroline Desrosiers:

Yes.

Will Butler:

Kind of an internet holiday. I feel like this is... I had never heard of May 4th until last 10 or 15 years. It's particularly special for you this week Caroline, because you're going to a Star Wars wedding. Am I right?

Caroline Desrosiers:

I am actually. My sister is having a mini wedding on May 4th because my sister and her fiance are big Star Wars fans, so of course. It's surprisingly not like star wars themed in any other way, they just are honoring the day, I think.

Will Butler:

I would bet that there are a fair number of people whose anniversary is on May 4th.

Caroline Desrosiers:

Right. They're joining a very interesting club in that way.

Will Butler:

Were you a Star Wars person growing up Carolyn? Or were you like a Star Trek person? Or like two camps?

Caroline Desrosiers:

I would say neither actually, because I was more into Indiana Jones actually, I was weirdly into Indiana Jones and Jaws and like those kinds of franchises. But Star Wars, I mean, I saw them, but I wasn't as big of a fan as others. So I saw them when I was a kid, but then it was like a long time until I saw them again.

Will Butler:

You were a Spielberg person.

Caroline Desrosiers:

Yeah, exactly.

Will Butler:

Yeah, as opposed to a George Lucas person. But I'm particularly excited and I'm frankly a little nervous because you brought an extremely special guest today to help us out with Star Wars memes. Caroline, can you please just introduce our VIP guest host for today?

Caroline Desrosiers:

Yes. Our very important guest this week is actually my husband, Justin, and we invited him on because he loves Star Wars. So welcome to Say My Meme, Justin.

Justin:

Hallo.

Will Butler:

Welcome to the podcast, Justin, it's great to have you here.

Justin:

Thank you. Yeah, it's great to be here.

Will Butler:

Are you and Caroline in the same house right now?

Justin:

Yeah, we are, but we're hiding in separate rooms.

Will Butler:

Oh, you've got your own booth.

Justin:

I have a booth, that is-

Will Butler:

Very professional.

Justin:

Her older sister's old bedroom.

Will Butler:

Amazing. Is there Star Wars paraphernalia around?

Justin:

You know, I wish for this, but unfortunately not. It's just my love for Star Wars in this room right now.

Caroline Desrosiers:

No, that room used to be like plastered with smashing pumpkins and Nirvana posters if I'm remembering correctly. So the decor has changed.

Will Butler:

Who would you say is the bigger Star Wars fan, Justin or your sister?

Caroline Desrosiers:

Oh, that's a really good question. I'm going to have to say Justin actually, only because he knows a surprising amount about Star Wars and the details that he can recall, to me are amazing. So I don't know, I think maybe you've seen them a few more times than my sister, but maybe she'll beat me up for saying that.

Will Butler:

Oh, she's welcome to come on too.

Justin:

Yeah, there you go.

Will Butler:

She can prove herself. Maybe we should just yell at her from the other... is she on the other room? Justin, what are your earliest Star Wars memories? Give me a little background.

Justin:

Yeah. Star Wars and I, we go way back. I can remember getting the VHS tapes for Christmas and then I don't think there was ever not a Star Wars tape in the player. I was just always watching them. And then I had all the Hasbro toys... or not all, but I had a lot of Hasbro toys, my friends had a lot of Hasbro toys, together we probably had them all. All the figurines and the micro machines as well. So I just... I don't remember a time without Star Wars.

Will Butler:

What about new Star Wars stuff? Where are you at with all the Disney Star Wars? And... there's been so many, I can't even keep track of all the new stuff.

Justin:

I know. Yeah, the Star Wars universe is vast. I admit I haven't watched the new stuff as much as I watched the old... the original trilogy, but I've definitely watched everything at least once, so.

Will Butler:

Hmm. You're like, "I haven't watched all the new stuff, but I've seen it all."

Justin:

Yeah, I haven't watched... Yeah, I've watched it but not nearly as much.

Will Butler:

Mandalorian fan?

Justin:

Yeah, yeah. Well, I like the second season more than the first, it was... I was surprised at how episodic it was, that just TV now isn't really that way anymore. It's this huge arc from beginning to end and Mandalorian wasn't really that. So it was an older format, but I enjoyed it. I enjoy any new Star... I like the prequels for what they are, just because it's more Star Wars, but they are by no means good movies.

Will Butler:

Yeah. Through and through, Star Wars fan. Caroline, what was it like hunting for memes with Justin? I'm assuming you guys worked on this together.

Caroline Desrosiers:

Yeah, it was actually really fun collaborating and finding these memes. And it was interesting because like some had to pass the tests, where like they were good enough for Justin and Star Wars fans, and then also I could understand them. So we chose some like that, and then others that are like a little bit more obscure and for people that would know all the details. But it was a lot of fun and I learned a lot about Star Wars and about Justin this week.

Will Butler:

So, hopefully we'll have some for the non Star Wars fans and some for the real ones. Are we ready to just dive in and start?

Caroline Desrosiers:

Justin, are you ready?

Justin:

I'm so ready.

Will Butler:

Justin, you're going to be describing them.

Justin:

Yeah.

Will Butler:

Oh, wow. I didn't realize.

Justin:

Yeah. I mean, I left it to Caroline to give the thorough description, but I've got the quick one and the tagline, I'm ready for it.

Will Butler:

Perfect. Amazing. Okay, Justin, you're up to bat. Star Wars meme number one.

Justin:

Yeah. Okay. Ernie on earth's and unsettling revelation that startles Bert before bed time. Well, I know how much you enjoy Caroline's many impressions. So I'm going to attempt an Ernie voice for you here.

Will Butler:

Okay.

Justin:

Okay. So tagline. "In Return of the Jedi, how could the Ewoks have a dress that fit Leia, unless they cooked and ate a woman her size?"

Will Butler:

Oh my God, that's amazing. Wait, wait... So, this is a real Bert and Ernie image that we're looking at?

Caroline Desrosiers:

Yeah. So first of all, proxy Justin's Ernie's voice-

Justin:

I did not-

Will Butler:

That's Bert and Ernie on the first Star Wars-

Caroline Desrosiers:

I know, right? Kind of surprising. But yeah, it combined... Yeah, it's an image or a frame from Sesame Street and Bert and Ernie who are longtime roommates are laying down in their separate twin beds. And Ernie is kind of in the background of the photo and he's like propped up on an elbow and his mouth is open, kind of like he's talking at Bert, like in his direction. And Bert is in the foreground laying in his bed on his side and he's staring like wide-eyed directly at you. So it seems like Ernie has said something that kind of startled Bert and that's like the... so visualize that. And then I feel like Justin, you should read that tagline again or something because it's actually kind of an interesting observation about Star Wars.

Will Butler:

And you may have to give us context around the storyline too.

Justin:

Yeah. So in Return of the Jedi, "How could the Ewoks have a dress that fit Leia, unless they cooked and ate a woman her size?"

Will Butler:

Oh, right. Because when she came to the biggie walk party, they put a dress on her.

Justin:

Yeah, yeah. She's just like in one scene, in this big old poncho and then in the next she's in this brown dress.

Will Butler:

It's true. Where the hell did they get that dress?

Justin:

Exactly. And in Return of the Jedi, Loucon Chewbacca and C3PO, they get caught in that net and that Ewoks immediately love C3PO, it's like a golden God. But the rest of them get put on spits and the Ewoks are going to light them on fire and presumably eat them.

Will Butler:

Customary. Customary to eat human visitors, I guess.

Justin:

Exactly. Yeah, exactly. They were just... they were the game.

Will Butler:

Wow. That is crazy. And some of these memes, it's not so much about getting the cheap laugh, but it's about introducing some pretty deep new ideas, right?

Justin:

Yeah, this is a good one, definitely. And then I like this one because someone posted this on Twitter and tagged Mark Hamill and then Mark Hamill actually responded and he said-

Will Butler:

Oh wow.

Justin:

He said, "Whoever made this, we're friends."
"Thoughts on this Mark?"
And he says, "I'm trying not to think about it."

Caroline Desrosiers:

Like, "Good point, but I don't need that image in my mind."

Will Butler:

Wow, yeah. That's crazy. And [inaudible 00:10:57] of course, it's like they're having Star Wars pillow talk or something.

Justin:

Exactly.

Will Butler:

So it's strictly platonic pillow talk.

Justin:

Yeah. And this one's fun because Bert and Ernie... Bert is voiced by Frank Oz who voiced Yoda.

Will Butler:

The crossover.

Justin:

Yeah.

Will Butler:

I didn't even think about that.

Justin:

It's got many layers.

Will Butler:

That's wild. Oh my gosh. Okay. We're really... we're deep in here.

Caroline Desrosiers:

Oh, yeah.

Will Butler:

Let's do Star Wars meme number two.

Justin:

Okay. So two images, a common collected Mandalorian aiming his rifle versus 15 plus stormtroopers firing at anything and missing at everything. Tagline; my tongue finding the piece of food in my teeth versus my finger trying to find the same piece of food.

Will Butler:

Oh, that's gross.

Caroline Desrosiers:

But so true. Like, have you experienced that?

Will Butler:

Yeah. When you've got a piece of food in your teeth, your tongue is like a sniper, it knows exactly how to get in there, right?
Yeah.

Caroline Desrosiers:

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Will Butler:

Your hand is like not used to being in your mouth. And so it's really just... it's trying everything to make it work.

Caroline Desrosiers:

Exactly.

Justin:

Yeah. It's all, it's all over the place.

Will Butler:

Oh my God.

Caroline Desrosiers:

Yeah, it's pretty amazing. So for a little more detail, these are just side-by-side frames, different scenes from the Star Wars universe. And the first is a profile shot of the Mandalorian, or Mando aiming a rifle at something off camera. And the second is just this like hot mess of a scene with a lineup of stormtroopers during some battle scene. But some are dead, others are dying at this moment and then the rest are shooting blasters all over the place. Like there's little red beams of light firing out and you don't really know if there's any organization or tactical operation at all in this scene.

Will Butler:

And the Mando... I actually didn't watch the Mandalorian and now I might need to go back and do that. But Mando is like, he's a sharp shooter, what's going on there?

Justin:

Yeah. The Mandalorian, he's a bounty hunter.

Will Butler:

Oh, okay.

Justin:

But he is a Mandalorian. So there's this race of people who they live for war and battle and they're just trained from birth and they're just all around bad-asses. But he's great at everything he does. The stormtroopers however are just known for being terrible shots.

Will Butler:

Isn't the tongue the strongest muscle in your body or something like that? I don't know.

Caroline Desrosiers:

I would believe it.

Justin:

That could be true. Yeah.

Will Butler:

I don't know. Wow, okay. Star Wars meme number three.

Justin:

Okay. Darth Vader chokes and lifts a dude off the ground. "Channeling that, we do not grant you the rank of master," Anakin raged. Tagline, "Strong people don't put others down, they lift them up." Darth Vader philanthropist.

Will Butler:

She's like one of those inspirational posters that you put on your wall.

Justin:

Yeah. Exactly. Exactly.

Caroline Desrosiers:

You got it. Yeah, that was like the perfect visual. It's like one of those like cheesy quotes and it's like this black and white photo. But yeah, the image is like Darth Vader from A New Hope lifting captain Antilles off the ground while strangling him like-

Justin:

Classic scene. Yeah.

Caroline Desrosiers:

Yeah, classic. Yeah, so he's like kind of looking up at him and Antilles is trying to pull away, like break free from his grasp. But yeah, the Darth Vader philanthropist, pretty funny.

Will Butler:

That's my favorite. That's my favorite one so far.

Caroline Desrosiers:

Oh yeah. This is definitely that description written by Justin because we do not grant you the rank of master, is like very specific and from another movie and I was like, "That's way over my head, what are you talking about?"

Will Butler:

What is that a reference to Justin?

Justin:

That's from the last movie in the prequels, the Revenge of the Sith where Anakin is in the Jedi council chambers and they're giving him some news that he doesn't want to hear. That Mace Windu played by Samuel Jackson is saying like, "You could be on the council, but we don't grant you the rank of master." And Anakin does not respond well or as a Jedi should respond to that.

Will Butler:

Right. And then the rest is history.

Justin:

And the rest is history. He goes on to become notorious.

Caroline Desrosiers:

Yeah, he gets deeper into that internal rage.

Justin:

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Will Butler:

Who's the best Anakin, Justin?

Justin:

Like the best version of Anakin?

Will Butler:

Yeah.

Justin:

Definitely Darth Vader. Or do you mean have different... What do you mean exactly?

Will Butler:

Like, what's your favorite portrayal of that character? Like-

Justin:

Well, it's definitely not the little kid who played them.

Will Butler:

Poor kid. What's his name, Jake Paul? No.

Justin:

Ja... Yes.

Will Butler:

Jake Lloyd.

Justin:

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, not good. But yeah, that movie had some redeeming qualities, but it was definitely not young Anakin. Hayden Christensen was okay. It's just always, it's fate or all the way, right?

Will Butler:

Yeah, yeah. Maybe that's just the way it should be, you can't replace that. James Earl Jones, Peter Cushing combo.

Justin:

Yeah.

Will Butler:

That was the body of Vader, right?

Justin:

Right. I think that... Yeah, Vader is just like... everyone knows Darth Vader. If they've never even seen Star Wars they know Darth Vader.

Will Butler:

Yeah, that's one for the masses. Okay. We have Star Wars meme four.

Justin:

Okay. Surly father Han Solo shares a moment with his lo-fi, Darth Vader's son. Tagline;
Han: Ben, I am your father.
Ben: I know.
Han: I was kind of hoping you'd jump off the side like Luke did.
That's it.

Will Butler:

Whoa. Okay, wait. Yeah, I haven't any more explanation on this one. So-

Caroline Desrosiers:

Yeah, it's that scene from The Force Awakens when Han Solo confronts Kylo Ren on the bridge and they have this exchange, right? Very heated exchange. This is a sequence of three images with captions. First two images have like real subtitles from that actual scene and the third was inserted by whoever created this meme. So it's just a sequence of shots. The first is Han Solo with his mouth open, like he's yelling at Kylo Ren and then the second is just Kylo Ren with a mask on, you can't see his face. And then the third one is just like a stern Han Solo with like a furrowed brow and a slight frowned, and that's when they've inserted the tagline, "I was kind of hoping you'd jump off the side like Luke did."

Will Butler:

Okay, okay. So it's like it's a callback to Empire Strikes Back. And then Han's like trying the old classic like, "I am your father."

Caroline Desrosiers:

Right.

Will Butler:

As a way to get him to jump.

Caroline Desrosiers:

Yeah. So yeah, definitely... Yeah, it's reminiscent of that scene and Justin, maybe you could provide more background. And also this is your fav... Empire Strikes Back is your favorite. So yeah, you like this one for that reason.

Justin:

Yeah. I do love Empire Strikes Back, easily my favorite movie. It's just got the most dramatic ending and it's got that big reveal between Luke and Darth Vader, which I hope everyone knows about by now.

Will Butler:

Whoops.

Justin:

So this is... it's a very similar scene. There, it's Han Solo talking to his son Kylo Ren, and he's the son of Han and Leia. And Kylo has got this very Vader Rask outfit on, he's gone to the dark side and he worships his grandfather Darth Vader. So it's a very dramatic scene and something, probably the biggest moment in the movie, happens right here.

Will Butler:

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Justin:

So... But I won't say just in case.

Will Butler:

But he doesn't jump off the bridge like Luke did.

Justin:

No, no. Luke would rather die than turn to the dark side, that's what you've learned in Empire.

Will Butler:

Right.

Justin:

But Kylo is very much... He's dark and he's not coming back.

Will Butler:

Yeah.

Justin:

Yeah.

Caroline Desrosiers:

Right. So there's some symmetry here. Like whoever created this meme, saw the connection between this scene and the one from Empire Strikes Back and made a clever little addition, like this was the actual line from the movie, yeah.

Will Butler:

Wow. Wow. So do any of you know where any of these memes came from? Was there a particular source that was really good for these Star Wars memes?

Justin:

Yeah. It's a lot of image searching and sifting through hashtags. Sometimes they have signatures on them, but I don't think any of these really do.

Caroline Desrosiers:

No, they don't.

Will Butler:

It's remarkable to me, like in the world of copyright that we live in, that memes just proliferate with no author. It's incredible.

Justin:

Yeah. Yeah. They're very much for the people.

Will Butler:

Yeah.

Justin:

Right.

Will Butler:

Okay. So one more? Do we have a Star Wars number five?

Caroline Desrosiers:

Yeah. My personal favorite.

Justin:

Okay. A cloaked and impossibly wrinkly Emperor raises his giant crab-like pistachio claws to snap at you. Tagline; When the pistachio finally cracks open after it almost destroyed your fingernails. "I have waited a long time for this, my little green friend."

Will Butler:

That's pretty good. Does he actually say, "Little green friend?"

The Emperor:

I have waited a long time for this moment, my little green friend.

Will Butler:

Oh, wow. Who's he talking to, the Emperor, when he's-

Justin:

He's talking to Yoda.

Will Butler:

Oh.

Justin:

So it's perfect. Right? It's just... that's what the evil man says to Yoda.

Will Butler:

Wow.

Caroline Desrosiers:

Yeah, it's pretty amazing. And this... Yeah, I mean the Emperor, Darth Sidious, he looks terrifying in this frame. Like he's got a very pale face and exaggerated wrinkles around his eyes, forehead and around his mouth and his wrinkles almost look more like skin folds actually, like really creepy looking. And his mouth is open and almost like he's hissing at us like, "Hsss," and his eyes are like very sunken and pale and red rammed. And he's holding up like both his hands as Justin said, kind of like a crab, but someone has photo-shopped giant pistachio shells over his hands. So he's got pistachios for hands.

Will Butler:

That part of it seems like sort of unnecessary, like why does he have pistachios on his hands?

Caroline Desrosiers:

Well, I mean, it's-

Will Butler:

It's amazing.

Caroline Desrosiers:

For me, sometimes I don't eat pistachios because of the hassle of trying to get them open. And also if they're salted, it can hurt after a while, your fingers. Yeah.

Will Butler:

Some of them are just like straight up sealed shut and I'm just like, I'm not even going to try on that one.

Caroline Desrosiers:

Yeah, just give it up. Yeah.

Will Butler:

Wow. That's that's pretty great. I just imagine there are just millions of Star Wars memes out there.

Justin:

Oh yeah. Yeah.

Caroline Desrosiers:

Oh my God.

Justin:

Tons.

Caroline Desrosiers:

Yeah. It's like overwhelming and there's so much to know about them too, because you've got like super fans out there making obscure references and that's where I learned a lot. Because in writing these with Justin, I would guess at how to describe them and he's like, "No, no, no. You're using the wrong terminology," or, "This reference is this other movie." Like very complicated.

Will Butler:

Yeah. I mean, I consider myself a Star Wars fan and some of it I had to... it really jogged my memory. Like, "Oh, well why is Leia wearing a dress with the Ewoks? Like-

Justin:

Yeah.

Will Butler:

As Justin so aptly put at the beginning of the episode, the Star Wars universe is vast.

Justin:

It is true.

Caroline Desrosiers:

Well said.

Will Butler:

Justin, any final thoughts on May 4th and what we can all do in our own homes to celebrate this auspicious and wonderful day?

Justin:

Yeah. Well, May 4th be with you, all of you. And I don't know, I would just say if you're going to watch anything, I've recommended going back to the original trilogy. It's timeless, still looks great, it's just a great story. I love it, can't get enough of it.

Will Butler:

Are you in that same camp of like, Return of the Jedi is like a little too campy for you, A New Hope is kind of like, "Naah," and that Empire is the real one?

Justin:

Yep, yeah. I am one of those.

Will Butler:

Yeah.

Justin:

What about you?

Will Butler:

Yeah, I think that's like... there's something I really like about A New Hope. I think just the introduction to that universe, just seeing it for the first time and you start with the first one and they're on tattooing and you're just like, "What is going on?" To me, that's a really important piece of it all.

Justin:

Yeah. Yeah, I agree.

Will Butler:

It might be campy, it might be corny, but his aunt and uncle to me, they're important. They're like... it's the launchpad of this whole thing.

Justin:

Yeah. Yeah, it's got soul as the prequels we're struggling to find.

Will Butler:

Yeah. Well May 4th be with you both. And Justin, thanks so much for letting us pull you in to Say My Meme. It's a family affair now.

Justin:

It is, yeah. Happy to talk about Star Wars.

Caroline Desrosiers:

Yeah. Thank you Justin, for coming in and rescuing me. I mean, I couldn't think of a bigger Star Wars fan in my life so this just felt right. But I appreciate you coming on.

Justin:

Yeah, anytime.

Will Butler:

Well, I hope you enjoy the wedding tomorrow. Is there going to be any Star Wars element to the wedding?

Caroline Desrosiers:

I feel like Justin might have to have like a surprise planned for them or something they don't know about.

Justin:

Yeah. Other than me dressed up as Chewbacca, I don't know what we're going to do.

Will Butler:

Even just a small Wookiee roar right at the end of the ceremony maybe.

Caroline Desrosiers:

At the very least. Awesome.

Will Butler:

All right, thanks everybody. Have a great week. And as always, if you want to submit your memes, send us an email at hello@saymymeme.com and check out some of these visuals on Instagram as well. We're on Instagram and Twitter @saymymemepod. Thanks Caroline, we'll see you next week.

Caroline Desrosiers:

Thanks guys, later.

Justin:

Bye.

Caroline Desrosiers:

Bye Justin.

Will Butler:

Do you want to describe your favorite memes for our community? Send a voice memo to hello@saymymeme.com. That's hello@saymymeme.com.

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