The Marked Safe meme uses an altered version of the Facebook Safety Check feature to allow people to jokingly flag themselves as “safe” from certain public figures or amusing situations. After Facebook released this feature in 2015, the meme version of the safety check first appeared in 2017 to joke about the infamous Harvey Weinstein allegations and trial.
As the years went by, social media users have marked themselves safe from romaine lettuce, Avengers: Endgame spoilers, attempted coups, and even the “marked safe” meme itself.
“Marked safe from” meme template
The standard meme template for the “marked safe” joke consists of a simple image on a white background including a small blue clip art flag followed by the text “marked safe from,” whatever name or description of the person, event, or idea you’re mocking, and then “today” at the bottom.
Marked safe meme origins
The origins of the “marked safe” meme trace back to the April 2015 Nepal earthquake. On April 25, 2015, a devastating 7.8 magnitude earthquake the nation of Nepal, killing nearly 9,000 people and injuring almost 22,000 more. The natural disaster left many Nepal residents terrified that their loved ones had been hurt, killed, or buried in rubble and needing rescue for days following the event.
In response, Facebook released its Safety Check feature to allow people to announce to their followers that they were safe from any particular dangerous event, whether a natural disaster, mass shooting, or anything else that could hurt or kill multiple people in a short period.
On October 14, 2017, the Facebook page Liberty with Paul Marie posted an altered version of the Safety Check image reading “marked safe from Harvey Weinstein today.” This referenced the extensive allegations of sexual abuse, assault, rape, and harassment perpetrated by the film producer upon women in the industry over decades.
His production company Miramax dismissed Weinstein and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences expelled him from their ranks during the same month.
Celebrity gossip writer Perez Hilton reposted this original meme to his own Facebook page on November 2, 2017, where it gained significantly more views and reactions.
Meme spread
The marked safe meme didn’t take off until over a year later. Its most prolific period began in January 19, when popular Facebook accounts like God began to use the format to make fun of political upheaval such as the so-called “Southern Border crisis” and sports pages poked fun at rival teams.
As the year went on, and into 2020, the trend spread to other social media platforms including Twitter and Reddit, and began to reference other memes. It saw an uptick in use in March 2020 as different camps argued about the level of threat surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic.
Although the meme declined in popularity after this, you can still often spot it following significant world or national events. On August 25, 2022, the Facebook page Occupy Democrats posted the meme format marking itself safe from “Being Bitter that Student Loan Payments were forgiven.”
Marked safe meme examples
Related memes:
- “Safety Not Guaranteed” meme becomes a movie—minus one mullet
- Facebook meme asks: Where was your first gay bar?
- Fake Facebook ‘meme’ leads internet to accuse innocent man of Michigan State shooting
- History of the guess I’ll die meme
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