Suez the Memes

For the past couple of weeks, humanity delighted in a strange global crisis.

A giant container ship got stuck crossing Egypt’s Suez canal, blocking passage and causing a massive traffic jam and collective global delight.

We all watched a big boat, the Ever Given container vessel, as its crew proceeded to have what was probably the most amplified work fuck-up of anyone’s career. The Suez Canal’s biography has chapters titled Napoleon, the British Empire, diplomatic crises, occupation, Arab-Israeli wars, UN presence. It now includes ‘the time a big boat got stuck in it’.

This story has not only captured the world’s imagination but has spawned some of the internet’s most impressive meme work:

• The ever so topical

Suez Orman@sweetlikeJT

“Were you a CONTAINER ship or were you a CONTAINED ship?”

12:35 PM · Mar 30, 2021

27K Reposts · 196K Likes

• Designer flex

Jaskaran Bhatia@jaskaran1312

guys i found a way to fix the suez canal situation #SuezCrisis #EVERGIVEN

1:05 PM · Mar 28, 2021

2.35K Reposts · 12.7K Likes

• Gamers

Eric Wilder@Eric_C_Wilder

Idk why I made this. But you can play it here: eric-c-wilder.itch.io/suez-canal-bul…

5:38 PM · Mar 26, 2021

159 Reposts · 466 Likes

• TV buffs

b@doyalikebaileys

“and i had to wonder - was i not also stuck in my own sort of spiritual suez canal?”

6:09 PM · Mar 26, 2021

3.13K Reposts · 16.5K Likes

• Freelancers

Joanna #SaveMollem@thatdoggonelady

The freelance version of everyone's current favourite meme! #SuezMemes

6:57 AM · Mar 28, 2021

18 Reposts · 122 Likes

• An ode to corporate meetings

• Humor I have 100% time for

• Humor I don’t understand

• Memes featuring the best of us

Gordon Coleman@GordonLibrarian

When you spot your first Suez Bernie meme in the wild, I need you to know I thought of it first.

8:40 PM · Mar 25, 2021

5 Reposts · 18 Likes

• And memes featuring the worst

There. Are. Millions.

The power of this event lies in the fact that it hits the perfect balance of the Absurdly Simple and the Extremely Memeable. And perhaps that’s the secret formula that taps into how collective joy and collective grief are experienced: in a year where the whole world grieved, the simple premise of this crisis offered a brief moment of collective delight.

Is it an unfortunate accident where a massive vehicle was lodged across a waterway causing an annoying and unnecessary delay? Yes.

Is it also a commentary that speaks to a deeper desire within the human nature to unite over something that can offer a mild sense of schadenfreude to everyone literally regardless of where they’re from and how much they know about what’s going on around them? Probably also yes.

This is the millennial competition event of global crises: everyone gets a trophy for participating.

Having an informed opinion about this event doesn’t need much informing. In an era of NFTs, GameStop, Cryptocurrency, mRNA Vaccines, disinformation, and climate change complexities, this headline was simple: A Big Boat Got Stuck.

Bless.

I said this many times and I will say it again: the rightful recipients of this year’s entertainment awards ought to be viral meme-makers in recognition of their outstanding efforts to heal our collective grievances, whatever they may have been, and there have been many this year. I don’t remember a TV show or a movie or a song making me laugh half as much as some memes did these past couple of years, and they were all free, open source, and available for everyone.

The hashtag #putitback has been trending on Twitter and Instagram since the container was freed on Monday. What is that if not a collective cry from us all to take us back to a time when things were simpler and we all giggled at a boat that got stuck in the sand?

Happy easter everyone. I will save my Ramadan greeting to force me to send another one of these before it Ramadan hits.

The uncredited memes are all from here.