Rising from the floor in a victory sign, the actress consolidated her role as a legend of reactions that also set the bar high.
As the prophet Ariana Debose once said: Jamie Lee Curtis, you are all of us!
After an awards season that presaged its triumph, Everything Everywhere All at Once won seven of its 11 nominations, including three for Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan and Jamie Lee Curtis, and one for Best Picture. When the hours-long ceremony ended with this award, Curtis had one last chance to complete her personal win of the 2023 season: that of meme queen.
At that moment, the cast and crew took the stage for their big collective moment and Curtis, fists clenched, literally jumped for joy, rising from the floor as the fateful group photo was taken. Naturally, the Internet did what it is wont to do: it celebrated the scene. And here came a shower of memes of amie Lee Curtis photoshopped on a trampoline, strapped to a jetpack or intent on shooting hoops. There was also a fair amount of 'it's Activia' banter, with a reference to her role as an ambassador for the probiotic, something for which she has long been praised (but also fancified).
It's just the latest in a series of viral moments for the star, who has inadvertently become one of the most contextually applicable icons of modern times since she participated in a Halloween about trauma in 2018, which could easily trump Lady Gaga's 'there could be a hundred people in the room'. Since then, she's been a great source of inspiration, especially during the 2023 awards ceremony, when we peaked Curtis.
Some of these joyously snappy moments include Ariana Debose's impassioned defence of the classic rap at the BAFTAs, her red carpet pose with one hand on her hip that was captioned as "OKAAYYYY" and spread as an instant classic, and her screaming reaction to Michelle Yeoh's Golden Globe win (which she later turned into a T-shirt, because the best internet moments are the ones you can wear).
When it comes to memes, though, doing funny things with or without context doesn't always mean you're a legend. Many superstars have found themselves caught up in the Internet's context-free reaction trends by accident; few have managed to establish themselves as pillars of the genre. Even fewer have maintained such status without becoming a meme of the meme or without falling into the trap of becoming a meme on purpose, which the Internet hates, because the Internet can spot those who try too hard a mile away. Jamie Lee Curtis, on the other hand, has retained her memeability by simply accepting the situation and not caring why.
She is a woman who has seen the trauma meme and seems only slightly confused about it, who has worn a T-shirt with a 0.5 second clip of her applauding her co-star as a statement of female empowerment, and who, at every opportunity, doubles down on her passionate feelings about (seemingly) everything without thinking the thing might have a life of its own outside of its context. The actress exists almost parallel to her memeability, constantly feeding the joy of the masses without getting high. A true beacon of the Gen X, Millennial and Gen Z digital ecosystem.
As awards season comes to an end, there may be a settling down on the Jamie Lee Curtis meme front as we all take a well-deserved break from the red carpets and speeches. However, with the inevitable boost from her Oscar 2023 win, it's only a matter of time before the meme queen returns and lovingly makes her way everywhere and at once.
