The “Gonna Tell My Kid” meme has been trending on social media and taking a jab at revisionist history. The biggest concern raised by parents — the meme’s capacity to change kids’ view of the past. Take for example the Tweet featured above which read: “Gonna tell my kids this was Jesus Christ.”
Revisionist history aims to challenge orthodox views of historical events and records. And, it introduces contrary evidence or reinterprets motivations and decisions of the people involved.
Twitter trolls have reenvisioned history for themselves through the “Gonna Tell My Kid” memes. A majority of the memes found on Twitter have more than 100,000 likes and retweets combined. Some famous faces being reimagined through the trend: A$AP Rocky, Lana Del Rey, Brendon Urie, Lil Uzi Vert, and Taylor Swift.
1. The New: JFK and Jacqueline Kennedy
On the left is American singer, Lana Del Rey, with American rapper, A$AP Rocky. Del Rey is known for her 60s and 70s fashion sense that parallels the former first lady’s style.
2. The New: Abraham Lincoln
Honest Abe is getting swapped for Panic! at the Disco’s lead-singer, Brendon Urie. The image is taken from the most popular song on the 2005 album, A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out. The song: “I Write Sins Not Tragedies,” is still a fan-favorite and the top hat in the music video emulates the iconic one worn by the 16th President.
3. The New: Bernie Sanders
Bernie Sanders isn’t usually the subject of memes, but twitter trolls couldn’t help themselves with this non-celeb gentleman.
4. The New: Barack Obama
No, this is not our former president, but Lil Uzi Vert’s patriotic attire says otherwise. Lil Uzi Vert, for those who don’t know, is a popular American rapper who gained media attention after featuring in Migos’ song “Bad and Boujee” that circulated back in 2016.
5. The New: Danny DeVito
Enough said.
6. The New: The Avengers
The 1991 animated children’s television series Rugrats is still a childhood-favorite. They were true heroes in the show.
7. The New: Jesus Christ
Some twitter trolls stand by the idea that Jonathan Van Ness is the “real” Jesus Christ. Ness is the television personality from Queer Eye and his long locks and groomed beard don’t help this confusion.
8. The New: Nick Jonas and Priyanka Chopra
Since this trend has floated around, everyone’s favorite couple has been reenvisioned left and right. Here, singer Nick Jonas from the Jonas Brothers and actress, Priyanka Chopra, who married in 2018, are represented by stand-ins Ryan Howard and Kelly Kapoor from the TV series The Office.
9. The New: One Direction
Clearly, this should have been the original boy band. I mean, c’mon, look at Rob Lowe.