Can you name a more iconic duo than Kendall and Kylie Jenner, authors of young adult sci-fi novel Rebels: City of Indra: The Story of Lex and Livia? One apparent fan of the Jenner sisters is waiting.
negansvoid/Twitter
She won’t have to wait long, though, because a lot of people don’t believe the junior-varsity Kardashians deserve a place in history alongside duos like peanut butter and jelly, Woodward and Bernstein, and Romy and Michelle.
Naming iconic duos is now a tremendously popular meme, and no one’s having any trouble with the challenge. It plays well with other recent memes, e.g., Harambe the ape and the boy who fell into his enclosure, or Michelle Obama hugging George W. Bush.
https://twitter.com/coolestguyontwi/status/781138831445626883
https://twitter.com/rymacduff/status/781135855406592000
Name a more iconic duo.. I’ll wait pic.twitter.com/DSeuruwigC
— ol’ bo (@flacko_jordye) September 28, 2016
https://twitter.com/rymacduff/status/781129761795870720
https://twitter.com/livszcz/status/781107961812938753
Name a more iconic duo. I’ll wait. pic.twitter.com/QeytLrR6MY
— Armin Rosen (@ArminRosen) September 28, 2016
https://twitter.com/That_Nesbro_Guy/status/781026154291617794
You can also use the iconic duo meme to burn the weakest member of a trio. Poor Michelle.
https://twitter.com/DiscreetLatino/status/781108371688742913
And some decided to go with icons in the religious sense. I see what you did there:
https://twitter.com/chrischromak/status/781148566412750848
Generally a pretty good meme, even if the girl who created it now says she was trolling. “Emma” told New York magazines’s Select All that she doesn’t really believe the Jenners are iconic, she just wanted to see how people would react.
Welp, it worked. The tweet was so popular and so widely derided that she had to lock her account. Understandable, considering it’s now been quote-replied thousands of times and Twitter’s infamous harassment problem has reared its ugly head:
https://twitter.com/KyyyEl/status/781049844593025028
Meanwhile, others still don’t understand what the hell is going on, or they’re pretending not to:
https://twitter.com/BLTgansta/status/781052878718894080
https://twitter.com/illywhacker_/status/781051004519231488
https://twitter.com/BubbaYega/status/781160550621335552
I don’t know who the two girls are in this “find a more iconic duo” meme.
— Kolby Kuwitzky (@kolbykuwitzky) September 28, 2016
https://twitter.com/schultzy1909/status/781154294770855936
The thing about that “name a more iconic duo” post going around is I… don’t know who that is…
— Josh Greenberg (@GreenbergAJosh) September 28, 2016
Performatively feigning ignorance of pop culture is boring and doesn’t make you look smart.
The “iconic duo” meme is fun because it created a new template and a fun game—try to think of the most absurd duo you can—but its popularity is driven in part by a loud, angry dislike of Kendall and Kylie that’s far out of proportion to anything they’ve actually done.
You know who loves the Jenner sisters? Teen girls. And, as has been observed many times, grown-ups on the internet love to tell teen girls that the things they like are vapid and pointless.
The meme’s good though. It’s whimsical. Have fun with it. Don’t be an angry, red and nude baby on the website Twitter.com.
