Be like Bill

Last updated

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]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of Facebook</span>

Facebook is a social networking service originally launched as TheFacebook on February 4, 2004, before changing its name to simply Facebook in August 2005. It was founded by Mark Zuckerberg, Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes. The website's membership was initially limited by the founders to Harvard students, but was expanded to other colleges in the Boston area, the Ivy League, and gradually most universities in the United States and Canada, corporations, and by September 2006, to everyone with a valid email address along with an age requirement of being 13 or older.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Planking (fad)</span> 2008 fad

Planking is an activity consisting of lying in a face-down position, sometimes in an unusual or incongruous location. The palms of the hands are typically touching the sides of the body and the toes are typically touching the ground. Some players compete to find the most unusual and original location in which to play. The term planking refers to mimicking a wooden plank. Planking can include lying flat on a flat surface, or holding the body flat while it is supported in only some regions, with other parts of the body suspended. Many participants in planking have photographed the activity in unusual locations and have shared such pictures through social media.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tom Scott (YouTuber)</span> English online and television personality

Thomas Scott is an English YouTuber and web developer. On his self-titled YouTube channel, Scott creates educational videos across a range of topics including history, geography, linguistics, science, and technology. As of August 2024, his five YouTube channels have collectively gained over 7.8 million subscribers and 1.87 billion views.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The dress</span> Viral phenomenon regarding the colour of a dress

The dress was a 2015 online viral phenomenon centred on a photograph of a dress. Viewers disagreed on whether the dress was blue and black, or white and gold. The phenomenon revealed differences in human colour perception and became the subject of scientific investigations into neuroscience and vision science.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pepe the Frog</span> Comic character and Internet meme

Pepe the Frog is a comic character and Internet meme created by cartoonist Matt Furie. Designed as a green anthropomorphic frog with a humanoid body, Pepe originated in Furie's 2005 comic Boy's Club. The character became an Internet meme when his popularity steadily grew across websites such as Myspace, Gaia Online, and 4chan in 2008. By 2015, he had become one of the most popular memes used on 4chan and Tumblr. Different types of Pepe memes include "Sad Frog", "Smug Frog", "Angry Pepe", "Feels Frog", and "You will never..." Frog. Since 2014, "rare Pepes" have been posted on the "meme market" as if they were trading cards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bernie Sanders' Dank Meme Stash</span> Facebook group supporting US Senator Bernie Sanders

Bernie Sanders' Dank Meme Stash is a Facebook group where members previously shared and discussed Internet memes relating to American politician and United States senator from Vermont, Bernie Sanders. Sanders was a candidate for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, as well as the 2020 U.S. presidential election. This page is still active on Facebook with over 273,000 followers as of 2023.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dat Boi</span> Meme of a frog riding a unicycle

Dat Boi is an Internet meme originating from the clip art website Animation Factory. The meme garnered popularity on Tumblr in 2015 before gaining more recognition through Twitter in 2016. It is usually accompanied by a person saying "here come dat boi".

Social media played an important role in shaping the course of events surrounding the 2016 United States presidential election. It facilitated greater voter interaction with the political climate; unlike traditional media, social media gave people the ability to create, comment on, and share content related to the election.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shitposting</span> Intentionally posting poor-quality social media posts

In Internet culture, shitposting or trashposting is the act of using an online forum or social media page to post content that is of "aggressively, ironically, and trollishly poor quality". Shitposts are generally intentionally designed to derail discussions or cause the biggest reaction with the least effort. It may even sometimes be orchestrated as part of a co-ordinated flame war to render a website unusable by its regular visitors.

da share z0ne Satirical social media user

@dasharez0ne is a social media account known for posting image macros pairing skeleton art and absurdist or ironic captions. Da share z0ne's posts are an elaborate parody of online hyper-masculinity; specifically, da share z0ne's posts mimic "tough guy" memes with characteristics like macho posturing, poor graphic design, and juvenile fondness for generically "cool" imagery like skeletons, leather jackets, grim reapers, tombstones, flames, and guns.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wojak</span> Internet meme

Wojak, also known as Feels Guy, is an Internet meme that is, in its original form, a simple, black-outlined cartoon drawing of a bald man with a wistful expression.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NPC (meme)</span> An insult that implies a person lacks critical thinking

The NPC, derived from non-player character, is an Internet meme that represents people deemed to not think for themselves; those who lack introspection or intrapersonal communication; those whose identity is deemed entirely determined by their surroundings and the information they consume, with no conscious processing whatsoever being done by the person themselves. The meme gained further viral status on TikTok in 2022, with the surge of "NPC Streamers". The NPC meme, which graphically is based on the Wojak meme, was created in July 2016 by an anonymous author and first published on the imageboard 4chan, where the idea and inspiration behind the meme were introduced.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stan Twitter</span> Online community of X users

Stan Twitter is a community of Twitter users that post opinions related to celebrities, music, TV shows, movies, video games, social media, and others. The community has been noted for its particular shared terminology but also for incidents of harassment and bullying. Usually, Stan Twitter revolves around discussing public figures — primarily those in the entertainment industry such as actors and musicians.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dancing Pallbearers</span> Ghanaian group of pallbearers

Dancing Pallbearers, also known by a variety of names, including Dancing Coffin, Coffin Dancers, Coffin Dance Meme, or simply Coffin Dance, is the informal name given to a group of pallbearers from Nana Otafrija Pallbearing and Waiting Service who are based in the coastal town of Prampram in the Greater Accra Region of southern Ghana, although they perform across the country as well as outside Ghana. The founder and leader of the group is Benjamin Aidoo. Locally, they are referred to as Dada awu.

Karen is a slang term typically used to refer to a middle-class white American woman who is perceived as entitled or excessively demanding. The term is often portrayed in memes depicting middle-class white women who "use their white and class privilege to demand their own way". Depictions include demanding to "speak to the manager", being racist, or wearing a particular bob cut hairstyle. It was popularized in the aftermath of the Central Park birdwatching incident in 2020.

Fake news in the Philippines refers to the general and widespread misinformation or disinformation in the country by various actors. It has been problematic in the Philippines where social media and alike plays a key role in influencing topics and information ranging from politics, health, belief, religion, current events, aid, lifestyle, elections and others. Recently, it has evolved to be a rampant issue against the COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines and the 2022 Philippine general election.

"Moye Moye" is an internet meme that originated from the 2023 Serbian song "Džanum" by singer-songwriter Teya Dora. The song's chorus contains the lyrics "moje more" in Serbian which means "my nightmares".

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.