“I Thought It Was a Work Event”. British Cultural Resistance through Memes
“I Thought It Was a Work Event”. British Cultural Resistance through Memes

Summary/Abstract: Social media’s members of the 21st century have been engaged in a variety of new forms of communication, among which, an important place is occupied by image memes. Memes represent an idea, concept, opinion and situation (López-Paredes & Carillo-Andrade 2022), incorporate diverse elements such as intertextual references, a joke or a critical message that refer to some aspect of the human experience, and are endowed with a significant discursive power (Wiggins 2019).The purpose of this study is to examine some of the memes that were created as a reaction to “Partygate” in 2021, criticizing the British Prime Minister. A qualitative content analysis was performed on a series of memes that started from Boris Johnson’s apology to the House of Commons (“I thought it was a work event”) for having attended a party in a period when such gatherings were forbidden (with the exception of work events) because of Covid-19 restrictions. The study aims to depict how these memes act as a form of resistance and criticism against the British Prime Minister, his deeds and apology.

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