
Trump-Munir White House Lunch Triggers Bollywood Meme Frenzy Online
Online humour, which internet users frequently refer to as “cringe,” took on a distinctly Bollywood feel. Scenes from Rajkumar Hirani’s well-known sequence from “3 Idiots” were included in some of the cuts, imaginatively implying what transpired when they first met.
With social media users reading the high-stakes encounter via the prism of Bollywood masala, US President Donald Trump’s private lunch for Pakistan’s Army Chief-turned-Field Marshal Asim Munir at the White House has unpredictably sparked a big meme fest online. Given Pakistan’s strong relations to Tehran, the infrequent meeting, which took place amid escalating tensions between Israel and Iran, attracted a lot of attention.
Few details of the one-hour meeting, in which Munir was joined by ISI chief Lt Gen Asim Malik, were made public. “They know Iran better than most,” Trump said to reporters for a brief moment, implying the strategic significance of the negotiations. The internet, however, quickly “filled in the blanks,” changing the focus from geopolitical strategy to humorous conjecture.
Social media streams were rapidly overrun with amusing memes that showed Trump and Munir “brokering world peace over biryani” and french fries.
Often referred to as “cringe” by internet users, the online humour acquired a distinctly Bollywood feel. In order to imaginatively indicate what would have happened when they met, some of the edits used clips from Rajkumar Hirani’s well-known scene from 3 Idiots and Anil Kapoor and Amrish Puri’s 2002 film Rishtey.
Social media’s creative, and frequently amusing, interpretation of the closed-door meal was what really dominated internet talk, even though the White House hailed it as a significant development amid the Israel-Iran dispute.