2012 Costa Concordia Disaster

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The 2012 Costa Concordia Disaster produced 'Vada a bordo, cazzo' (Italian for 'Get on board, dick'), yelled by Coast Guard Captain Gregorio De Falco at cruise captain Francesco Schettino after Schettino fled his grounded ship. A leaked audio tape released January 17, 2012 turned the line into t-shirts, a Twitter hashtag, and Schettino image macros within days.

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Overview

The 2012 Costa Concordia Disaster meme centers on one Italian phrase, 'Vada a bordo, cazzo,' shouted by Coast Guard officer Gregorio De Falco at cruise captain Francesco Schettino during a radio call the night the ship hit rocks off Isola del Giglio1. In English the line translates roughly to 'Get on board, dick,' and it stuck because Schettino had already abandoned the vessel while thousands of passengers were still struggling to get off2. On the tape De Falco furiously ordered the captain back aboard to count children, women, and people needing help, framing him as a coward against a plain-spoken responder1.

Visually the format took two main shapes. One was a 'Keep Calm and Vada a Bordo Cazzo' t-shirt riff on the British wartime poster2. The other was a wave of photoshops and English-language image macros of Schettino's face, hosted on caption sites like Memegenerator, Quickmeme, and Memebase3.

How It Spread

By the afternoon of January 17, the same day the tape leaked, #vadaabordo was trending on Twitter and Italian users were printing the phrase onto shirts using the 'Keep Calm and Carry On' template2. Mashable reported that a Facebook page titled 'Vada a bordo, cazzo' went live that day and pulled in close to 4,000 likes by evening2.

That first Facebook page grew past 10,000 likes by January 19, and a second page under the same name gathered more than 4,800 likes in its first day3. Followers overlaid the line onto photos of Schettino, particularly ones playing on his courtroom claim that he 'tripped' into a lifeboat as the Costa Concordia listed2. The BBC picked up the story internationally, publishing its own English translation of the De Falco audio and giving the phrase reach well beyond Italy1.

How to Use This Meme

The catchphrase is typically used as a mock rebuke to anyone bailing on a responsibility, either quoted straight in Italian or dropped over a 'Keep Calm' style poster. Image macros often pair the line with photos of Schettino himself or with any figure caught fleeing a mess they caused.

Frequently Asked Questions

2012 Costa Concordia Disaster

2012catchphraseclassic

The 2012 Costa Concordia Disaster produced 'Vada a bordo, cazzo' (Italian for 'Get on board, dick'), yelled by Coast Guard Captain Gregorio De Falco at cruise captain Francesco Schettino after Schettino fled his grounded ship. A leaked audio tape released January 17, 2012 turned the line into t-shirts, a Twitter hashtag, and Schettino image macros within days.

catchphrase memes 2012 memes scandal memes hashtag memes photoshop memes

Overview

The 2012 Costa Concordia Disaster meme centers on one Italian phrase, 'Vada a bordo, cazzo,' shouted by Coast Guard officer Gregorio De Falco at cruise captain Francesco Schettino during a radio call the night the ship hit rocks off Isola del Giglio1. In English the line translates roughly to 'Get on board, dick,' and it stuck because Schettino had already abandoned the vessel while thousands of passengers were still struggling to get off2. On the tape De Falco furiously ordered the captain back aboard to count children, women, and people needing help, framing him as a coward against a plain-spoken responder1.

Visually the format took two main shapes. One was a 'Keep Calm and Vada a Bordo Cazzo' t-shirt riff on the British wartime poster2. The other was a wave of photoshops and English-language image macros of Schettino's face, hosted on caption sites like Memegenerator, Quickmeme, and Memebase3.

How It Spread

By the afternoon of January 17, the same day the tape leaked, #vadaabordo was trending on Twitter and Italian users were printing the phrase onto shirts using the 'Keep Calm and Carry On' template2. Mashable reported that a Facebook page titled 'Vada a bordo, cazzo' went live that day and pulled in close to 4,000 likes by evening2.

That first Facebook page grew past 10,000 likes by January 19, and a second page under the same name gathered more than 4,800 likes in its first day3. Followers overlaid the line onto photos of Schettino, particularly ones playing on his courtroom claim that he 'tripped' into a lifeboat as the Costa Concordia listed2. The BBC picked up the story internationally, publishing its own English translation of the De Falco audio and giving the phrase reach well beyond Italy1.

How to Use This Meme

The catchphrase is typically used as a mock rebuke to anyone bailing on a responsibility, either quoted straight in Italian or dropped over a 'Keep Calm' style poster. Image macros often pair the line with photos of Schettino himself or with any figure caught fleeing a mess they caused.

Frequently Asked Questions