Star Wars is undoubtedly one of the most popular and highest-grossing film franchises in the world. In addition to becoming a worldwide pop culture phenomenon over the last three decades, it has, of course, spawned waves of online memes. Out of the infinite Star Wars memes online, one of the memes that gained popularity in 2022, and fits under the "how did this become a meme" category is the 'Live Slug Reaction' meme.
This massive slug with bulging eyes, having barely any screen time in the film, has managed to acquire a lot more screen time on the internet, as fans cannot get enough of this goofy-looking extraterrestrial.
Origin of the meme
This viral slug made its debut appearance in the 2019 movie Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker. The movie introduced this character for the very first time as Klaud, the alien slug who works as a mechanic for The Resistance. One of the final scenes featured the fighters of The Resistance celebrating their victory against The Final Order, where everyone was seen hugging each other. And among the crowd, seen hugging one of The Resistance members, was Klaud.
A photo featuring the character was also shared on Twitter to celebrate the release of the 2019 film. On release, Klaud never made it as a memorable character in the movie, since his total screen time was less than a minute. However, a year later in 2020, a Reddit user created a subreddit dedicated to sharing Klaud memes. The subreddit initially did not gain much traction, but over time, managed to gain around 1000 subscribers in two years.
It wasn't until 2022 that the meme became viral when a user on X incorrectly pointed out that the camera cut to Klaud's squinting face immediately after the first-ever LGBTQ kissing scene of Star Wars was shown. Soon after, Klaud became a viral meme across social media platforms thanks to his weird hug combined with his squinting, bulging eyes that really tickled Star Wars fans on the internet. It gained the name 'Live Slug Reaction meme' and has since been used in hundreds of thousands of memes all over the internet, and has most commonly been used as a go-to reaction meme for scenes featuring LGBTQ characters.
The name 'Live Slug Reaction' however, was derived from another meme from a year ago called 'Live Tucker Reaction'. The meme went viral after a video featuring Fox News host Tucker Carlson reacting live to one of President Joe Biden's speeches aired, where the host was seen giving some of the most hilarious facial expressions.
Trending
No other place besides the internet can one witness a character with a minute of screen time becoming the talk of the town, and one meme inspiring many other different memes. The internet is truly a fascinating place!
Reply
