Pope Benedict XVI's Resignation

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Published September 23, 2026

On February 11th, 2013, Pope Benedict XVI announced he would step down at the end of the month, becoming the first pope to voluntarily leave the papacy in nearly 600 years. The shock announcement sent Twitter into a joke frenzy, spawned Reddit image macros within hours, and later fueled the #ReplaceMovieTitlesWithPope hashtag game that trended worldwide.

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Overview

Pope Benedict XVI's Resignation refers to the 265th pope's February 2013 abdication and the wave of jokes, image macros and hashtag games it triggered online1. Because a sitting pope had not voluntarily quit since Gregory XII in 14152, the announcement caught even Vatican insiders off guard and turned an unusual church news story into a full-blown social media event within hours1.

The humor took two main shapes. On Reddit, users cranked out image macros pairing photos of Benedict XVI with punchline captions, most famously a Scumbag Hat mitre edit titled "'Chosen by God' / Quits" posted to r/atheism3. On Twitter, the joking was faster and looser: puns about the pope quitting his job, mock resignation letters, and eventually the tag games #ReplaceAnimeTitlesWithPope and #ReplaceMovieTitlesWithPope, the latter of which hit worldwide trending with over 64,000 mentions on March 13th, 20133.

Origin & Background

Platform
Reddit / Twitter (viral spread)
Date
2013

Catalyst event: On February 11th, 2013, Italian news agency Ansa first reported that Pope Benedict XVI would step down on February 28th, citing age-related health issues4. The Vatican confirmed the announcement the same day, releasing the full Latin text of the resignation, in which the 85-year-old pontiff said his strength of mind and body had deteriorated to the point that he could no longer adequately fulfill the ministry5. Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi told reporters that even the pope's closest aides were left "incredulous" and that a successor would be chosen before Easter2.

Earliest known meme: Within hours of the Vatican statement, Redditor realmenwearkilts submitted an image macro to r/atheism showing Benedict XVI wearing a Scumbag Hat patterned mitre with the caption "'Chosen by God' / Quits," which pulled roughly 19,900 upvotes and 1,000 comments in about seven hours3. Reddit's r/Christianity subreddit spun up an "Official Pope Thread" the same day as a running discussion of the news and possible successors3.

How It Spread

The story ran everywhere in traditional press on February 11th, 2013, with the BBC, USA Today, The New York Times, CNN, The Guardian, Fox News and The Washington Post all publishing same-day coverage of the resignation and its historical rarity26. Speculation pieces followed within hours: ABC News ran a list of seven cardinals seen as potential successors, and The Telegraph floated the possibility of the first black pope, naming Cardinals Peter Turkson of Ghana and Francis Arinze of Nigeria3.

Online reaction moved even faster. "Pope" became a worldwide trending topic on Twitter the same day as users piled on with dismay, criticism of the church and one-liners, with UpRoxx and the Wall Street Journal's Dispatch blog both publishing roundups of the tweets3. On February 27th, 2013, roughly 150,000 people packed St. Peter's Square for Benedict's final general audience, where he told the crowd he had "never felt alone" in carrying the weight of the ministry (translated from Italian)4. The Vatican pushed out one last tweet from his @Pontifex account before he retired to Castel Gandolfo the following day1.

The meme phase peaked in mid-March. Over the second week of March 2013, #ReplaceAnimeTitlesWithPope and #ReplaceMovieTitlesWithPope circulated on Twitter, with the movie tag hitting worldwide trending on March 13th, 2013, at over 64,000 mentions according to Topsy analytics3. Later that same day, the Sistine Chapel's white smoke signaled Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio's election as Pope Francis, immediately kicking off a fresh round of new-pope image macros on Reddit and Tumblr3.

How to Use This Meme

The core hashtag format is simple: take an existing anime or movie title and swap in the word "Pope" for one of the words ("The Pope Strikes Back," "Pope Fiction"), then post it under #ReplaceMovieTitlesWithPope or #ReplaceAnimeTitlesWithPope3. The Scumbag Pope image macro follows the standard Scumbag Steve template: a two-line caption where the top line sets up a hypocritical or self-serving setup ("Chosen by God") and the bottom line delivers the punchline ("Quits")3.

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