The use of memes is something that came into existence in the late ‘90s. With the evolution and technological advancements that came with the Internet and computers with the 21st century, the use of memes gained more and more renown as it found an easy niche in the social and entertainment world. The seeds for the Mission Accomplished meme were sown roughly 15 years ago when the then President of the United States of America, George W. Bush used the exact words ‘’Mission Accomplished” during a speech in what he assumed would be America’s overwhelming victory over Iraq. This message wasn’t well received at the time because as it turned out, that war was far from over. For the Bush administration, the Mission Accomplished Meme would represent one of the most unforgettable antics of the decade. However, over time, the meaning of that meme began to evolve, until it became what it is today.
The shift in the meaning of the Mission Accomplished meme began with the succeeding United States President, Barack Obama. With him, the Mission Accomplished meme became something that was used to declare that you’ve achieved something. The phrase has slowly transitioned from something used to cover up failure into words used to express perseverance. Today, a Mission Accomplished meme also represents an urban world’s symbol of overcoming the impossible. A meme once used purely for cynicism has now come to be accepted as a symbol of achievement.
The Mission Accomplished Meme has been a strong influence in several areas, spurring its very own meme generator, success gif and a “We did it” gif, just to mention a few. Together, let’s take a walk down the history paths and see just how much these famous words have come to influence the world since they were first seen.
Table of Contents
· Meme Generator
The Meme Generator is one revolutionary piece of software that has taken the world of Internet users by storm. A meme generator is an online tool that allows you to add text or words to a picture in a matter of minutes. This means that where before, a person had to be digitally savvy as well as possess a working knowledge of how to use picture editing software, now, you can just go online, upload the picture you want to add words to, input the text you want to appear in the appropriate space, pick exactly where and how you want it to appear, and you’re done. This tool further adds functions like choosing the kind of font you want the words you input to appear in.
The Meme Generator is one of many tools that has almost certainly guaranteed that the Mission Accomplished meme will remain forever Immortal. The Meme Generator adds a sort of uniqueness to the fifteen-year-old quote that is difficult to rival. There are hundreds of Mission Accomplished memes all over the Internet today. As a matter of fact, typing in the keywords “Mission Accomplished” into any search engine will generate you more meme results than text results. There is almost always a brand new and creative Mission Accomplished meme for every day. This makes the meme essentially evergreen.
A Mission Accomplished meme today can be used to express virtually anything from sarcasm and cynicism to pride and joy, depending on how the meme maker chooses to make it come across.
· Mission Accomplished Bush
There is a very high probability that the Mission Accomplished banner which was strategically positioned behind President Bush on that fateful day was most likely not the idea of the President himself but that of his publicity team. However, no one but President George W. Bush himself is credited for the Mission Accomplished meme. Whatever message he was trying to overtly or covertly send with that banner was rendered utterly inconsequential by the wave of disapproval the entire nation showed at that choice of words. What further adds to the entire drama of the Mission Accomplished meme is that although the banner was flown for all to see, there is no record that those exact words were used throughout the course of the speech given by President Bush.
History might be seeing the Mission Accomplished meme very differently today, if it had been that the message, however improperly structured it was proved true. Sadly, the United States of America faced some of its most brutal defeats just after the speech was delivered with much aplomb. Needless to say that that is a moot point as the most popular Mission Accomplished memes either carry the face of the former President fully plastered on it and/or the banner with the famous words written on it.
The Mission Accomplished meme was only a relatively small aspect of President Bush’s 8 year-long tenure as President, so it is safe to assume that the meme wasn’t one of the things he would’ve expected to be remembered most for. Today, however, it is quite difficult to bring to memory any of the major successes of the one time President without recalling that exact incident.
· Mission Accomplished Meme
The Mission Accomplished meme remains without a doubt one of the most popular memes in the world’s history. It’s also a meme with much depth of meaning. There remains no other meme to date that has seen more versatile use than the Mission Accomplished meme. The meme was given life in the middle of a very tough war in 2003. It became increasingly popular when after that public declaration of victory, the United States of America army suffered one significant defeat after another in Iraq. Those words on a banner led to the severe criticism of the President for more than half his stay in office.
Some noteworthy things to mention include the fact that the major reason the country received the message of that banner in such an unforgiving manner was due to its timing. Also, the person who most enjoyed the positive aspects of that banner wasn’t President George Bush himself but rather the one who succeeded him, President Obama. With President Bush, the Mission Accomplished meme was generally taken by the American people as a farce, or worse, something someone will say after having failed spectacularly at something. Yet, with President Obama, the exact opposite was true. When referring to President Barack Obama, the Mission Accomplished meme was taken by all in its very literal sense.
It is also important to mention here that like President Bush, President Obama never uttered those words. So while the reaction to the former as regards the statement is understandable, considering that he at least presented a speech under that banner, the connection of the Mission Accomplished meme to President Barack Obama is vague at best. Regardless, the world today indiscriminately relishes the humor the Mission Accomplished meme is always guaranteed to bring.
· Success Gif
A gif is Graphics Interchange Format for short. The concept of a gif is remarkably similar to that of a meme with some minor differences. The most important one being that the image within a gif can make limited movements repeatedly and nonstop. As with making a meme, all one needs to do is go online, find the right website offering the service (all of which are always free), then, you upload a video containing the exact motion you want to turn into a picture, you can then capture it and choose how long you want it to run. Texts can then be easily added to the cropped clip thereafter. Many people have been known to credit gifs as a more advanced form of memes. One of the many new trends that can be directly or indirectly traced back and attributed to the Mission Accomplished meme is the Success gif. The Success gif doesn’t share the kind of rich history the Mission Accomplished meme has. Also, unlike the Mission Accomplished meme, there isn’t ever any ambiguity attached to a success gif. Where the Mission Accomplished meme can be used to berate or applaud a person’s actions, the Success gif is essentially used for simply celebrating an achievement or an accomplishment.
There is almost no celebratory occasion for which a success gif doesn’t exist. There are success gifs for completing a workout session, graduation ceremonies and even eating breakfast. In a lot of ways, the Success gif does almost perfectly what the Mission Accomplished meme falls short in doing, slightly. A Success gif lends itself easily to understanding and rarely are they ever misconstrued as the moving picture, more than the text in most cases communicates exactly what the sender has in mind to say. There aren’t many images you can send out that can rival the Success gif when it comes to showing positive vibes.
· Mission Accomplished Gif
We have talked about the Mission Accomplished meme and all the history it holds to it. We have also briefly discussed the gif, explaining what it is in terms of the kind of the message it is supposed to send. Now, if a Mission Accomplished Meme can be used to easily communicate sarcastic displeasure or enthusiastic applause, a Mission Accomplished gif is what raises the kind of message being communicated to the highest level. A Mission Accomplished gif gives the user the benefit of including a moving picture that eloquently helps the user in passing across his message much more effectively than mere text can allow.
With a Mission Accomplished gif, fans of Mission Accomplished memes can go all out to express their thoughts in a manner that emphasizes clarity. What’s more, is that there are several ingenious Mission Accomplished gifs to choose from today, should you opt not to make your own. For people who like to go all out when it comes to expressing themselves using images, the Mission Accomplished gif offers them that opportunity and much more to fully put into an image what they can’t easily in words.
· We Did It Gif
Sometimes, as a team, you find yourself and your teammates surrounded by seemingly insurmountable odds. Now, when through the skill and ingenuity of each member of that team, you’re able to reach the goals you set out to achieve, then the “We did it” gif is one of the sweetest ways of celebrating that victory. Very similar to the Success gif, it is significantly better than the former as well as Mission Accomplished memes (and gifs) because unlike all the other gifs and memes before it, it includes you, the sender as an equal part in that victory dance.
The very best We did it gifs fully demonstrate and capture the true meaning of team spirit. The We did It gif also differs from the Mission Accomplished meme and gifs because like the Success gif, it is never used in any other context apart from a positive and celebratory one.
Going through the rich history of Memes, we see that they have come a very long way from containing just a single word or being used to crack jokes at deliberate misspellings. Memes are a strong force for moving the world, especially young minds and it’s influence must never be underestimated. Memes like the Mission Accomplished meme prove that there are no limits to how far a meme can go. The Mission Accomplished meme also goes to show just how much influence a simple picture with words can have over a generation, irrespective of the constraints of time. The Mission Accomplished meme has a following that has no intention of dying out soon and with memes becoming easier and easier to create each day, it is safe to say that it will be around for a very long time to come.
If you haven’t had the opportunity to come across a Mission Accomplished meme yet, you’re in for a treat as there is a literal cornucopia of material to keep you laughing for weeks on end.
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