# Game Of Thrones
Game of Thrones is an HBO medieval fantasy series that premiered on April 17, 2011 and drove a decade of internet memes around shocking deaths, dragons, and the fight for the Iron Throne[1]. Character-swap Tumblrs, Red Wedding reaction videos, Reddit spoiler drama, and cameo mockery of Ed Sheeran's Season 7 appearance kept the show in the meme cycle through the end of its eighth and final season[6].
## Overview
Game of Thrones is HBO's medieval fantasy drama adapted from George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire novels, set in the fictional Seven Kingdoms of Westeros where rival noble houses fight for the Iron Throne[3]. The show ran for eight seasons starting in April 2011, and its mix of political scheming, dragons, beheadings, and explicit content turned every episode into a Monday-morning meme event across Reddit, Tumblr, and Twitter[1].
Most of the meme output is character-driven, with fans repurposing King Joffrey Baratheon's smug face, Tyrion's slap of Joffrey, Cersei's shame walk, Jon Snow's brooding stares, and Ned Stark's 'Brace Yourselves, Winter Is Coming' pose[4]. Critics fixated on the show's 'sexposition,' where naked bodies at Littlefinger's brothel filled the frame during heavy dialogue dumps, a running joke big enough to earn a Saturday Night Live parody starring a fictional horny thirteen-year-old consultant[2]. Urban Dictionary entries piled on, defining the show around 'politics, royal intrigues, incest, murder, warfare, violence and sex' plus repeat mentions of the sex[9].
## How It Spread
By 2012 and 2013, meme energy was fueled by shock-death episodes like Season 3's 'The Rains of Castamere,' which delivered the Red Wedding and produced a wave of reaction-video compilations of unspoiled viewers screaming at their TVs[1]. April 2013 saw the launch of the Tumblr blog 'Joffrey Bieber,' which swapped scenes of Joffrey Baratheon with matching stills of Justin Bieber and quipped that 'his face has Lannister written all over it,' one of the earliest character-swap Tumblrs to catch fire[4].
The brothel scenes and the 'King's Landing Strip' joke about uniformly waxed Westerosi pubic hair became recurring critical talking points, cited in a widely shared io9 piece asking whether the gratuitous sex was worse than the gratuitous violence[2]. Reddit spoiler culture peaked in November 2016 when user 'awayforthelads' posted the alleged full Season 7 plot, including Jon and Daenerys hooking up, the Night King killing Viserion and using its body to burn down the Wall, and Arya executing Littlefinger, then deleted the account[6]. HuffPost later tracked how those spoilers turned out to be accurate, feeding an inside-job theory floated by actor Alexander Siddig, who played Prince Doran on the show, that HBO leaked material on purpose to build hype[7].
The Season 7 premiere in July 2017 delivered the show's most-mocked cameo when Ed Sheeran appeared as a Lannister soldier singing a 'new one' around a campfire as Arya Stark walked up, prompting write-ups from NPR, The Independent, and The Guardian about how out of place the moment felt[5]. Recap listicles like BuzzFeed's 'Steps to Get Over Your Game of Thrones Sadness,' which prescribed GIFs of Tyrion walking a dog captioned 'Tyrion walking a dog always works. Always,' were peak Sunday-night meme content during those years[8].
## How to Use
Common conventions include pairing 'Brace Yourselves' image macros with Ned Stark for any incoming bad news, using Tyrion's slap of Joffrey as a reaction GIF, dropping 'You know nothing, Jon Snow' when calling out ignorance, and captioning any tense wedding scene with a Red Wedding reference[8]. Character-swap Tumblrs like Joffrey Bieber set the template for later face-mashup blogs, where fans pick a real celebrity whose expressions match a Westeros character and re-caption stills accordingly[4]. Urban Dictionary also documents a drinking-game usage where 'Game of Thrones' names a bar contest of hunting public restrooms in one hour and tallying the toilets used[9].
## Frequently Asked Questions
### What is Game Of Thrones?
An HBO medieval fantasy series adapted from George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire novels, set in Westeros around a fight for the Iron Throne[3].
### Where did Game Of Thrones come from?
The first novel was published by Bantam Spectra on August 6, 1996; the HBO series created by David Benioff and D. B. Weiss premiered on April 17, 2011[1].
### What does Game Of Thrones mean?
It refers to the show's central fight for the Iron Throne of Westeros, and separately to an Urban Dictionary drinking-game entry about tallying public restrooms used within an hour[9].
### How do you use Game Of Thrones?
As reaction GIFs (Tyrion's slap, Jon Snow's brooding), quote captions like 'You know nothing, Jon Snow,' and character-swap Tumblr posts pioneered by Joffrey Bieber[4].
### Is Game Of Thrones still popular?
HBO ran a tenth-anniversary 'Iron Anniversary' campaign in April 2021 with merch, charity efforts, and curated rewatch paths like the 'Ice Walk' and the 'Path of Fire & Blood'[1].
### Who was behind the Joffrey Bieber meme?
An anonymous Tumblr launched around April 2013 that swapped Joffrey Baratheon scenes with Justin Bieber stills, covered by Mashable[4].
### What was the Game of Thrones Season 7 Reddit leak?
In November 2016, Reddit user 'awayforthelads' posted extremely detailed Season 7 spoilers, including the Wall coming down and Littlefinger's execution, then deleted the account[6].
### Was Ed Sheeran actually on Game of Thrones?
Yes, he cameoed as a Lannister soldier singing a 'new one' around a campfire in the Season 7 premiere in July 2017, which several outlets called a dud[5].
### Where was Game of Thrones filmed?
Primarily at Paint Hall Studios in Belfast, Northern Ireland, with additional shoots in Iceland, Croatia, Morocco, and Malta[3].
### What is the Red Wedding?
A shock-death sequence from Season 3's 'The Rains of Castamere' that sparked a wave of viewer reaction-video compilations[1].
### Did HBO ever admit to leaking episodes?
No, but actor Alexander Siddig, who played Prince Doran, publicly suggested the Season 5 episode leaks were an inside job to build hype[7].
## References
1. [https://winteriscoming.net/2011/12/23/thrones-lands-on-tons-of-top-tv-shows-of-2011-lists/]()
2. [https://io9.gizmodo.com/is-game-of-thrones-gratuitous-sex-worse-than-the-gratui-5906540]()
3. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/game-of-thrones]()
4. [https://mashable.com/2013/04/24/jeoffrey-bieber-tumblr]()
5. [https://www.npr.org/sections/therecord/2017/07/17/537717650/game-of-thrones-brings-ed-sheeran-in-and-shakes-us-out-of-westeros]()
6. [https://www.complex.com/pop-culture/2016/11/entire-plot-game-of-thrones-season-7-leaks-reddit]()
7. [https://www.huffpost.com/entry/massive-game-of-thrones-leak-should-have-hbo-freaking-the-hell-out_n_5820da43e4b0aac624862e44]()
8. [https://www.buzzfeed.com/daves4/steps-to-get-over-your-game-of-thrones-sadness]()
9. [https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Game%20Of%20Thrones]()
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Source: https://meme.com/memes/game-of-thrones
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