On October 20th, 2011, long-time Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi was captured and killed while hiding in a drainage pipe in his hometown of Sirte, Libya. According to the rebels who captured him, he died begging for his life, and waving around a golden gun.
He had fled to Sirte from Libya's capital city, Tripoli, following large-scale revolts against his 42-year rule of the North African nation. The fighting eventually built to a Libyan Civil War, which included a NATO military intervention.
Naturally, as word of Gaddafi's capture and then death spread across the world, millions took to the Internet to express their elation, reservations about the incident, thoughts, prayers for Libya and political philosophies. And also to tell jokes.
Collected here are the best, funniest Internet reactions to the death of Muammar Gaddafi.
Variations of this joke, in which Saddam, Osama and Gaddafi's name appeared on an ""assassination checklist"" along with a fourth humorous option, were massively popular in the wake of the Gaddafi announcement. Other versions of the joke listed other loathed celebrities, fictional characters and even inside jokes like ""My Ex."")
Rather than backing down after getting a wave of Twitter hate directed at him for insulting the beloved Mr. Bieber, Fake Bellamy didn't relent, and started responding to (and retweeting) his critics en masse. Sample responses below:
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Someecards: Halloween
With Halloween right around the corner, the loss of Gaddafi is going to throw a wrench into some people's plans, without a doubt. This next Someecards submission is just for them:
Seems like it'd be fairly straight-forward to swap out a Gaddafi costume for a Zombie Gaddafi costume. You really wouldn't even have to mess around with the hair, as living Gaddafi already pretty much had the stringy, undead, J-Horror look.
Come on, use your imaginations, people.
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Muammar Gaddafi's Death Leads to Mistaken Identity
An attempt at humor, or a tragic case of a misidentified photograph going viral:
OK, OK, they're probably kidding. But still, the resemblance is uncanny. And only a Gaddafi-level villain could have conceived of the Everlast team-up "Put Your Lights On":
Carlos Santana wasn't the only Gaddafi doppelganger out there causing mass confusion. Twitter user @Eliot also appears to have misidentified the corpse:
The highest-rated Gadaffi post on Reddit right after his death was this canny Disney reference:
Yes, it's King John the cowardly lion from Disney's "Robin Hood." Note that he and Gaddafi share the same predilection for fancy clothes, jewels and other accoutrements of royalty. Plus a tendency to suck their thumbs. You know, probably.
Many, many, many, many people thought to make jokes connecting the evil Libyans from "Back to the F*ture" - who memorably seem to kill Doc Brown in one of the film's opening scenes (oooh, 1985 spoilers!) - to the death of Gaddafi. But no one did so with more class than the parody account for presidential hopeful and pizza baron Herman Cain:
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#GadhafisLastWords Hashtag
In the wake of the Gaddafi news, one of the most popular, humorous Twitter hashtags that popped up was #GadhafisLastWords, which was kickstarted by staff writers from ""Last Show with David Letterman."" Here are a few of the keepers:
No topic was more thoroughly explored in the wake of Gaddafi's death than the numerous options when spelling out his name. (By some reports, there are over 200 different "correct" ways to configure the letters!) The artists of Someecards decided this called for a celebration:
Not 100% sure why the professor is teaching a Gaddafi lesson using the algebraic term "X="... but maybe that's why he went into academia and I write semi-humorous Internet lists. In my face.
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Rosie Swash (@RosieSwash)
Twitter user Rosie Swash got hundreds of retweets for this post, simply reporting how her friend's boss reacted to the news of Gaddafi's death.
NOT DAPPY!
Jokes about Gaddafi's name being difficult to spell or easily confused won the day on Twitter. A common variation would be to report the deaths of various spellings of Gaddafi (Qadaffi, Gaadafi, etc.) as separate events. Here's a sample from comedian Rob Delaney:
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The Bad News Bears Meme Accidentally Went Too Far
The Bad News Bears meme started earlier this year on aggregator/comedy sites such as Reddit. It features a photo of a family of polar bears who appear to be covered in blood and gore, and usually includes text implying that the bears have recently eviscerated a hapless victim.
In this entry from earlier today, the Bears were apparently sent on the hunt for Gaddafi:
You've got to give it up for a well-timed, antiquated reference. Cake Bowen (who claims to NOT be country artist Jake Owen, and who we should ad is unverified) nailed it by bringing up 2001 media darling Toby Keith in a new context:
Keith, you'll recall, famously promised to kick Osama bin Laden's ass (or something) after the 9/11 attacks. He also promised to give beer to his horses back then, which is probably not good for the animals, if you think about it.
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Of Course Someone Made This
Everyone's favorite '80s comedy meets everyone's least favorite '80s warmonger in this parody movie poster:
The "Weekend At..." meme seems to pop up its head every time a famous person dies these days. To wit:
Fortunately, Steve Jobs seems to have been spared the Bernie treatment... for now...
Thought you'd get through the entire day of Gaddafi's death without encountering this intensely tired meme? Nope.
I think the only thing that might finally convince people to stop doing this is if Chuck Testa actually starts stuffing and mounting dead celebrities. Chuck needs to own this conversation.
Second maybe only to ""Back to the F*ture"" references, in terms of post-Gaddafi death popularity, were ""Lord of the Rings"" jokes. Specifically references to Gaddafi returning to Earth as ""Gaddafi the White,"" in the style of Gandalf. Anyway, here's Twitter's Jon Daly with probably the best-written version of the bit.
(We're guessing it's the somewhat similar names that caused so many people to make the connection? Or maybe just that Gaddafi was magic?)
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James Adomian (@JAdomian)
LA comedian James Adomian responded to the death of Gaddafi with a reference to another recent assassination target and infamous scourge of Western civilization. I'm of course talking about Al Davis. No! I mean Osama bin Laden.
This of course is in response to all the photos of Gaddafi's bloody corpse that came out in the immediate aftermath of his death announcement. I'd post the photos here... but it would sort of spoil the convivial mood of the rest of the tweets, wouldn't you say?
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Mark Critch (@MarkCritch)
Canadian comic Mark Critch got in on the Gaddafi fun with yet another contemporary pop culture reference, this time to the tabloid trial of Michael Jackson's former physician:
Sure, it seems like an outlandish theory, but Murray infamously liked to have a lot of beautiful women around him, and was allegedly dating several women while still married... And who had a bevy of attractive nurses at his side at all times? That's right, your old pal Moammar.
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