Back in January, Steven Crowder—a conservative radio host who got canned from Fox News for talking shit about Sean Hannity—tweeted a striking image along with a provocative, typo-marred comment.
https://twitter.com/scrowder/status/687260244364267522
This ideal “make” body, which may or may not adorn Crowder’s bedroom wall, belongs to Fedor Vladimirovich Emelianenko, a Russian heavyweight MMA fighter. It seems that Crowder, fresh off trying to get himself some attention by complaining that Amy Schumer had posed nude for a calendar, was aiming to become an equal-opportunity body-policer.
But nobody, of course, really cared about his physical definition of masculinity. And several months went by, with Crowder turning to different means of seizing a spotlight: He drew the Prophet Muhammad on YouTube and took legal action against Facebook for its apparent bias against conservative news outlets. Good for him! Great exposure.
Yet, in a strange twist of virality, it was his January “make body” tweet that ended up having the biggest impact this summer, long after it first appeared. That was thanks to Vic Berger IV and Phil Braun, who resuscitated it for the round of mockery it should have received back then.
https://twitter.com/VicBergerIV/status/765524943450898432
@scrowder and for you men, take note of what Steven feels is the ideal body pic.twitter.com/9TOIuXdLvI
— Phil Braun (@playazball) August 16, 2016
https://twitter.com/VicBergerIV/status/765697875795931136
Indeed. Behold what Berger and Braun had wrought:
.@scrowder This is the ideal make body. You may not like it, but this is what peak performance looks like. pic.twitter.com/0fCSLug92v
— Godzilla Shammgodzilla (@FanSince09) August 16, 2016
https://twitter.com/jiveassbaloney/status/765590404519591937
https://twitter.com/jiveassbaloney/status/765593414209527808
This is the ideal make body pic.twitter.com/MlPRG0Qum8
— Eric B. Tweetin (@ericmichel) August 16, 2016
https://twitter.com/bornwithatail_/status/765595606614179841
https://twitter.com/crabghast/status/765595518567317505
https://twitter.com/czervik4pres/status/765594368560332801
RT @scrowder This is the ideal make body. You may not like it, but this is what peak performance looks like. pic.twitter.com/tMonIqwwBt
— bird hating account (@atf13atf) August 16, 2016
Perhaps the most devastating of these original replies referenced that time Crowder got punched square in the face by a Michigan union activist.
https://twitter.com/chicken__puppet/status/765588361197199360
Things quickly spiraled out of control from there, with everyone offering their deadly serious appraisal of “what peak performance looks like.”
https://twitter.com/RatRace123/status/765603980298694656
This is the ideal make body. You may not like it, but this is what peak performance looks like. pic.twitter.com/PtbPnmnFDn
— Ralph Douthat (@ralphdouthat) August 16, 2016
This is the ideal make body. You may not like it, but this is what peak performance looks like. pic.twitter.com/lqlySomJQX
— Jackie Peanuts (@jackie_peanuts) August 16, 2016
https://twitter.com/verywhales/status/765598774785810432
https://twitter.com/crushingbort/status/765587325757730817
https://twitter.com/pattymo/status/765605733832458241
RT @scrowder: This is the ideal make body. You may not like it, but this is what peak performance looks like. pic.twitter.com/PNrBhUEdiS
— Godzilla Shammgodzilla (@FanSince09) August 16, 2016
https://twitter.com/venomfckr/status/765607001833500672
This is the ideal male body. You may not like it, but this is what peak performance looks like. pic.twitter.com/lSZgspjtJ0
— Adam (@EvilOmarVizquel) August 16, 2016
It certainly seems that Crowder has fallen victim to Twitter users’ increasing tendency in this election cycle to dredge up conservatives’ older, less-than-engaged-with posts to laugh about them all over again: Witness the way people will continually retweet and react to, for example, Donald Trump’s pre-campaign rants about Diet Coke or celebrity couples.
https://twitter.com/TurboGrandma/status/735980459344203776
@realDonaldTrump has he thanked you yet
— Cezar (@omggcezar) August 4, 2015
Crowder hasn’t commented on this retroactive roasting—or maybe hasn’t yet realized it’s going on. After all, he’s busy editing videos that mock Caitlyn Jenner’s gender identity. Very timely, highly topical. Great stuff.
https://twitter.com/scrowder/status/765609135824113664
Why this obsession with bodies? Guess it keeps the focus off brains.
Update 9:02pm CT: This post has been edited to reflect that the meme began with a Twitter exchange between Vic Berger IV and Phil Braun.
