Be like Bill

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An example of the meme. Be like Bill snow.png
An example of the meme.

"Be like Bill" or its other name: "Be like Billy" is a social media meme that was introduced around late 2015, with its popularity greatly increasing in early 2016. [1]

Meme

The "be like Bill" meme typically features an image of a simple stick figure, who may be wearing a knitted hat, together with text such as "This is Bill. Bill is on Facebook. Bill is a vegan. Bill doesn't tell everybody about it. Bill is smart. Be like Bill." [1] [2] [3] The meme has been described as "a way for people to passive-aggressively call out social media behaviours that annoy them." [4] The meme also attracted a large number of detractors who criticized the meme's tone and lack of self-awareness. [5]

Boston officials used the meme to discourage the use of space savers in parking spots. [6] [7]

The meme has spawned foreign language variants with other characters, including Bilal (Arabic), Rashid (Malaysian), Jose (Spanish), [2] Petya (Russian), Qodos (Dari/Pashto), [8] and Juan (Tagalog). [9] There also exists a female variant with a character named Emily. [2]

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References

  1. 1 2 Subedar, Anisa (18 January 2016). "Why should you be more like Bill?". BBC Trending. BBC News . Retrieved 19 January 2016.
  2. 1 2 3 Feldman, Brian (19 January 2016). "'Be Like Bill' Is the Worst Thing on Facebook". New York . Retrieved 19 January 2016.
  3. Parsons, Jeff (19 January 2016). "What is #BeLikeBill? Everything you need to know about the meme that is taking over the internet". Daily Mirror . Retrieved 19 January 2016.
  4. Grossman, Samantha (25 January 2016). "Here's What to Know About the 'Be Like Bill' Meme Your Friends Keep Sharing on Facebook". Time . Retrieved 26 January 2016.
  5. Dewey, Caitlin (22 January 2016). "The rise of Be Like Bill — a detestable meme instructing an audience of millions". National Post . Retrieved 26 January 2016.
  6. Annear, Steve (25 January 2016). "'Be Like Bill' and remove your space savers, city says". The Boston Globe . Retrieved 26 January 2016.
  7. McGinnes, Meagan (25 January 2016). "Boston made its own 'Be Like Bill' meme about space savers". Boston.com . Retrieved 26 January 2016.
  8. Rahim, Fazul (24 January 2016). "#BeLikeQodos: Afghanistan Flips #BeLikeBill Meme on Its Head". NBC News . Retrieved 26 January 2016.
  9. Rhys, Buccat (18 January 2016). "Meet the gaming buddies behind 'Tularan si Juan'". ABS-CBN News . Retrieved 6 June 2016.