After January 20th, 2021, there was a flood of QAnon survivor content from people who were deeply, deeply ingrained into the conspiracy theory and had been jolted out of it by the inauguration of Joe Biden. One of the best came in the form of a Reddit Q&A, where the ex-QAnon member made the point that QAnon felt intoxicating because the core ethos behind it is that you feel like you’re changing the world, simply by sharing memes. For the terminally online, that’s a pretty bold statement of intent.
Hayley Garrigus’ feature documentary You Can’t Kill Meme approaches that same ethos, and tries to ask the question “who are the people that think their cyclical meme sharing is actually changing the world?” We’re not talking trying to become viral here, so much as diving deep into the idea that 4Chan/8Chan users were able to manifest tangible, real-world outcomes for themselves, simply by sharing memes. Garrigus seems to have two goals. One is to document the influence of the internet on American politics during the 2010s. The other is to interrogate individuals who ardently believe their use of memes is magick.
Being kind, the film doesn’t really succeed at either goal. For the former, the film feels like it’s doing a ton of leg work to establish a history of the internet that seems to cater to a very much not online individual. Contradictingly, the film will then feature interviews that are heavy in academic jargon and reference Deleuze. However, the meme magic interviews are also not effective, failing to paint the intended portrait that the film seems to want to paint. Garrigus has an interesting idea, and a unique visual style (the film is extremely well edited). But the focus is lacking and it undermines the film’s overall effectiveness.
- Release Date: 8/15/2021
