Short-Lived: Karnataka BJP’s Modi-Ned Stark Meme Falls Flat
Not all Game of Thrones references work, and BJP Karnataka found this out the hard way.
advertisement
The Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are both bringing their A game on social media, with the Karnataka Assembly elections fast approaching. Last week, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah threw shade at BJP general secretary P Muralidhar Rao for tweeting to him in Hindi, and said that he should be tweeted to in English or Kannada.
On Sunday, 23 April, BJP Karnataka announced that Prime Minister Narendra Modi would be visiting the Udupi Shri Krishna Mutt and would later address a rally in Udupi. They threw in a Game of Thrones (GoT) reference, along with the hashtag #Modiiscoming — a play on an iconic phrase from the hit TV series, “Winter is coming.”
Attached was a picture of Ned Stark in a meme-famous pose, with the words, “Brace yourself Congress.”
Using pop culture references on social media is usually a fool-proof way to make content shareable and relatable… except in this case, the BJP Karnataka IT Cell did not think the meme through.
Ned Stark, the character in the meme, is a virtuous and honourable character, quite the patriarch. And it doesn’t come as a surprise that the BJP would want to liken Modi to him.
But everyone who’s watched Game of Thrones knows what happens to Ned Stark – he dies. At the end of Season one, Ned Stark is beheaded in front of members of his family, making him one of the shortest-lived major characters in the series.
Check out some of these responses to BJP Karnataka.
(The story was originally published on The News Minute and has been republished here with permission)
(The Quint is now on WhatsApp. To receive handpicked stories on topics you care about, subscribe to our WhatsApp services. Just go to TheQuint.com/WhatsApp and hit send)
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)