"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]
"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]
The "Be like Bill" meme typically features an image of a simple stick figure, who may or may not 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]
{Bill}