When the New Horizons spacecraft sent back its first clear image of everyone’s favorite dwarf planet, Pluto became a perfect storm of a meme. Historians in the future will wonder what we were smoking.
An endless assortment of related memes can be found under #pluto hashtags across the social web. Pluto’s image was destined to be a meme: emotional debate has raged over its planet classification status for years, and you can buy all sorts of Pluto-themed merch to show off your feelings.
New Horizons’ beautiful Pluto pic was prime meme fodder, and meme we did. The photo would always have been popular, but the existence of a “heart” shape on the surface (or is it a dog?) fueled our imaginative whimsy. They ranged from the creative to the crass.
Let’s take a trip to the outer regions of the internet system.
U mad Pluto?
https://twitter.com/embed/status/621077798963269636
That’s no moon…
First high res image of #Pluto is disturbing!!!! 😦 pic.twitter.com/UJoPY2xDR1
— Patrick Redknap (@PatrickRedknap) July 14, 2015
Earth you callous bastard
Favourite Pluto meme so far pic.twitter.com/knbqahGBq6
— Philip J. Ellis (he/him) (@Philip_Ellis) July 14, 2015
You came in like a
https://twitter.com/embed/status/621121670439243776
Ask and ye shall receive
@david_j_roth pic.twitter.com/da9NLNcjJx
— Karisa Maxwell McKee (@KarisaMaxwell) July 14, 2015
Break the solar system
Haha the truth 😂😂😂 #PlutoFlyby #PlutoFacts #pluto pic.twitter.com/gaiODVHy0Z
— Leona Lewis (@MoanerLeona) July 14, 2015
Phone home
https://twitter.com/embed/status/621376669308194816
I’m not crying you’re crying
How Pluto felt today pic.twitter.com/QJYo1ukPs1
— Josh Constine 📶🔥 (@JoshConstine) July 15, 2015
No stop
“JPEG Plumes”
Annotated Pluto pic http://t.co/CarDiQ5ZfD pic.twitter.com/v9hyPKnOj4
— Dean Lombard (@darkdirk) July 14, 2015
Maybe he could be President 3 billion miles away
DONALD TRUMP FOR PRESIDENT OF PLUTO! pic.twitter.com/O6cdthEe7f
— Ryne Bailey (@ryanbailey25) July 14, 2015
You can’t sit with us
When you kick Pluto to the planetary curb but then drive by her orbit really slow. pic.twitter.com/xSdj8TfNVV
— Judge Don Willett (@JusticeWillett) July 15, 2015
IN YOUR FACE, DISNEY
.@Nasa You found our secret spot! 🙂 #PlutoFlyby pic.twitter.com/7vaOUmvh61
— PEANUTS (@Snoopy) July 14, 2015
And Stephen Colbert got in on the fun: “Remember, this is 2005 technology, so the probe is also posting all the pictures to Friendster.”
