# Guillotine On Twitter in 2019 and 2020, posting a photo of a guillotine became a standard reply to any tweet from a wealthy celebrity complaining about pandemic lockdown or everyday inconveniences[1]. Netizens had been joking about the beheading device online since October 2011, when it appeared in a Smosh roundup of Troll Dad macros[3]. By April 2020, She-Ra voice actor Aimee Carrero reporting death threats over one such post ignited the #IStandWithLesbianBabadook hashtag[7]. ## Origin The physical device predates the meme by two centuries. French doctor Joseph-Ignace Guillotin proposed decapitation by a mechanical blade in late 1789 as a more humane alternative to axes and swords, and a prototype was constructed by a German harpsichord maker named Tobias Schmidt[2]. The machine claimed its first official victim in April 1792 and became a central symbol of the Reign of Terror; Guillotin himself opposed capital punishment and tried to distance himself from the machine, which his family later petitioned to have renamed[2]. Earliest known meme appearance came on October 13th, 2011, when comedy site Smosh included a guillotine image in a roundup titled "The Best of Troll Dad"[3]. Political use is a separate story. Backlash catalyst for the modern form came in 2019 and 2020, when Twitter arguments over wealth, worker treatment, and celebrity complaints about pandemic lockdown drew the symbol into daily reply culture[1][12]. By early 2020, enough replies were landing in people's mentions that r/OutOfTheLoop readers were asking what the posts meant[5]. - **Platform:** Smosh (earliest known meme) / Twitter and Reddit (viral political use) - **Creator:** Unknown - **Date:** 2011 ## Overview Guillotine replies work as a punchline about class, aimed at posts from wealthy figures that strike readers as oblivious to how working people live[1]. A typical post sets a quoted tweet next to a photo or drawing of the device, sometimes labeled "Plan C" and sometimes captioned with phrases like "Anyone got a spare guillotine?"[10]. French Revolution imagery supplies most of the aesthetic, with Marie Antoinette and the Reign of Terror often invoked by name[1]. Variations lean into dark cartoon imagery, like Pepe the Frog getting beheaded or Bernie Sanders sketching a blade on a whiteboard[4][9]. Humor relies on contrast: a billionaire's tweet about missing their yacht followed by nothing but a drawing of the National Razor[8]. Some posters go for direct text ("eat the rich") while others post only the image with no comment, trusting the reader to connect it to the quoted post[1]. The guillotine meme sits inside a wider "eat the rich" vocabulary that spiked during 2019 and 2020 as income inequality discussion filled social media[8]. Teen Vogue described the online use as a continuation of working-class iconography that stretches back to the 1789 storming of the Bastille, with Madame Guillotine and Madame Deficit (Marie Antoinette) treated as recurring symbols of dissident femininity[1]. ## How to Use A guillotine post works as a reply, not a standalone joke. Users quote-tweet or screenshot a comment from a wealthy or famous figure that reads as oblivious to working-class life, then attach an image of the device without extra commentary[1]. Common conventions include labeling the blade "Plan C" to escalate a political debate[9], invoking the French Revolution directly, or posting only the line "Anyone got a spare guillotine?" as the full reply[10]. Captions sometimes go further into direct "eat the rich" territory, especially on Facebook pages dedicated to the format[11]. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is Guillotine? A political reply meme that uses images of the 18th-century French beheading device to answer tone-deaf statements from wealthy people online[1]. ### Where did Guillotine come from? The device dates to 1789 France[2]; the earliest known meme appearance is an October 2011 Smosh post titled "The Best of Troll Dad"[3]. ### What does Guillotine mean? Posting a guillotine signals class rage at the wealthy and alludes to the executions of French nobility during the Reign of Terror[1]. ### How do you use Guillotine? People reply to a wealthy person's tweet with a guillotine image, sometimes labeled "Plan C"[9] or captioned "Anyone got a spare guillotine?"[10]. ### Is Guillotine still popular? It saw its biggest run during 2019 and 2020 class-politics discourse[1][8] and resurfaces whenever a celebrity makes a tone-deaf statement during economic hardship[12]. ### Who invented the actual guillotine? Dr. Joseph-Ignace Guillotin proposed it in 1789; a prototype was designed by doctor Antoine Louis and constructed by harpsichord maker Tobias Schmidt[2]. ### What is the #IStandWithLesbianBabadook hashtag? It took off on April 8th, 2020 after voice actor Aimee Carrero posted a @LesbianBabadook guillotine meme that had not tagged her, saying she had received death threats[7]. ### Why do people invoke Marie Antoinette? Teen Vogue noted that Madame Deficit (Marie Antoinette) and Madame Guillotine remain icons of working-class dissidence that today's online posters keep calling back to[1]. ### What is the "Guillotine Memes Bring Communist Dreams" group? A Facebook group created on April 15th, 2019 that gathered over 10,100 followers within twelve months[11]. ### Did Bernie Sanders actually draw a guillotine? No, the whiteboard image was a joke posted by Twitter user @notallbhas showing Sanders drawing a "Plan C" blade; the tweet earned over 280 likes[9]. ### What was Ellen DeGeneres's role in the meme? During pandemic lockdown she compared her mansion to a jail, prompting @jonas_nordqvist to reply "Anyone got a spare guillotine?" on April 9th, 2020[10]. ## References 1. [https://www.teenvogue.com/story/eat-the-rich-guillotine-anti-capitalists]() 2. [https://www.history.com/news/8-things-you-may-not-know-about-the-guillotine]() 3. [https://web.archive.org/web/20111127000022/http://www.smosh.com/smosh-pit/memes/best-troll-dad]() 4. [https://www.reddit.com/r/MemeEconomy/comments/6mgsuk/worth_investing_in_guillotine_memes/]() 5. [https://www.reddit.com/r/OutOfTheLoop/comments/aqww7x/whats_up_with_people_posting_guillotines_in/]() 6. [https://www.reddit.com/r/dankmemes/comments/fctkm0/guillotine_noises_intensifies/]() 7. [https://twitter.com/aimeecarrero/status/1248090623153827840]() 8. [https://stayhipp.com/internet/memes/guillotine-eat-the-rich-class-warfare-memes/]() 9. [https://twitter.com/notallbhas/status/1247912479340015616]() 10. [https://twitter.com/jonas_nordqvist/status/1248338016923455489]() 11. [https://www.facebook.com/pages/category/Just-For-Fun/Guillotine-Memes-Bring-Communist-Dreams-379973369261955/]() 12. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/guillotine]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/guillotine Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library