In case you missed it, political Twitter was on fire Friday night after spotting this ad on Donald Trump Jr.’s Instagram feed. By Saturday, the photo of Donald Trump’s three oldest children was a thriving Internet meme.
The effort culminated Friday in this post:
At the time of this writing, the post had 17,800 likes — a strong showing for Trump on Instagram. (We’ve discussed previously how photos of Trump’s children on social media garner outsize attention.) But as usual, political Twitter went in a different direction than Trump’s fans.
It started with a couple of jokes from journalists and others noting a somewhat sinister quality in the photo:
America, your choice is between:
— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) September 3, 2016
1) A taco truck on every corner; or
2) Four years of looking at these people. https://t.co/BNSTeU7fNX
feel like I'm about to be offered a free personality test pic.twitter.com/27xSsa3FzN
— Simon Maloy (@SimonMaloy) September 3, 2016
What you summon when you say "Make America Great Again" three times in front of a mirror pic.twitter.com/RfQDX5jxg5
— James Poniewozik (@poniewozik) September 3, 2016
Millennials = really into being kidnapped by creepy banker guys and their sister and then being stared at like food pic.twitter.com/0zHckRqSdB
— John Hodgman (@hodgman) September 3, 2016
Not bad for a start.
But soon, users really got going with references to the Stephen King short story “Children of the Corn” and its subsequent film adaptations. That’s the one where — spoiler alert — a couple winds up dead in a rural Nebraska town taken over by a cult of homicidal children. If you remember the children from the movie, you probably know where this is going.
Photoshop helps boost any good meme, and this one was no exception:
The new Children of the Corn movie looks terrifying. pic.twitter.com/12CkPi6tB4
— pourmecoffee (@pourmecoffee) September 3, 2016
Even Trump made it in by the end:
— Gus (@Gus_802) September 3, 2016
Read more about Trump-driven trends on social media here:
