Memes rule social media as a means to communicate humor, with very few of them lasting beyond their trend. Popular stars also fall victim to this culture, and within the NBA, there is one particular star who happens to be repeatedly featured in such trends. None other than ‘Big Aristotle’ is the figure under the radar. It was only a couple of months ago that the ‘Prime Shaq Meme’ made its way into NBA Twitter, and now comes the next in line!

This time, it is called the ‘Shaq Timeout Meme,’ which shows Shaq making a ‘T’ with his hands, a gesture that means timeout across sports. The purpose of the original photograph, while supporting a campaign against hate, is read as a hollow celebrity action. Social media trolls have already taken it as an ironic representation of being pseudo. At this point, a popular TV show took it in its favor!

Yes, we are talking about the ‘After Midnight’ show hosted by Taylor Tomlinson, where she caught this trending meme: “No matter what he signs up to do, former NBA player and General Auto Insurance representative Shaquille O’Neal simply can’t help but become a meme.” While listing a couple of his former memes, such as the ‘Sleepy Shaq’, ‘Shaq Shimmy’ and ‘Surprised Shaq,’ she went on saying: ” The internet loves to take anything Shaq related and make it a reaction image.”  Even fun has a flip side, don’t you think? 

Considering the encouraging way Shaq approached his memes in the past, knowing the positive message intended to be conveyed could create a healthy ‘give and take’ with this new meme sensation.

The roots of  timeout meme

It all begins with Robert Kraft, the CEO of the New England Patriots and founder of the Foundation to Combat Antisemitism, who recently kickstarted a campaign against hate. In its pursuance, leading figures from major sports leagues in North America, including Shaquille O’Neal, Doc Rivers, and Jim Harbaugh, among others, have come out with the timeout sign, showing that it is time to stop hate.

When did this go viral? You were about to ask! The trigger was a tweet made by Adam Schefter, tagging images of these stalwarts. Since Shaq’s image happened to be on the top left of the grid in Schefter’s post, it got caught on social media’s radar.

However, the trend seems to be sparked by the perceived lack of depth in the idea of taking it to social media instead of engaging in real-time actions. The trending posts incorporated established characters such as ‘Miss Piggy’ from The Muppet Show in a post captioned ‘Me when I’m watching The Muppet Show and they start being misogynistic to Miss Piggy,’ while featuring Shaq’s meme. Watching a show like The Muppet Show, known for its misogynistic undertones, and using the timeout meme for protest doesn’t make sense. Thus, the timeout meme is called out for its absurdity.

Now that you know the original context, it’s up to you to take a judicious stance on the trend. While the genuineness of the campaign may be questionable, in the end, it is still a positive message that is being trolled.