Presentation Edits

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Presentation Edits are a genre of exploitable image templates showing a person or cartoon character giving a talk with a visual aid, where editors swap the chart, slide, or projection screen with any joke, opinion, or image they want. The format traces back to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's cartoon bomb diagram at the UN in September 2012 and later spawned dedicated templates from Trump, Bernie Sanders, TED Talks, The Simpsons, and Spider-Man.

exploitable templatesphotoshop memespolitical satire memesobject labeling2012 memes

Overview

Presentation Edits are a genre of exploitable image templates built from photos of a person or cartoon character standing beside a chart, slide, poster, or blank projection screen, where editors alter the visual aid so it presents an absurd argument, controversial opinion, or joke2. Source images span political podium moments like Netanyahu at the UN1, sitcom stills such as Lisa Simpson at a school assembly, TED Talk clips, and candid photos of teenagers running slide decks. What ties the templates together is a speaker gesturing at a wide, editable surface where any text or image drops in cleanly.

How It Spread

The format picked up steam through political photo ops. On August 11, 2016, Donald Trump held up a large white chart showing declining U.S. home ownership at a National Association of Home Builders speech, and Hillary Clinton campaign staffer Rob Flaherty tweeted a blanked version with the instruction "go to town, folks," pulling more than 2,600 likes in 24 hours4. On January 4, 2017, Bernie Sanders brought a printed Donald Trump tweet to the Senate floor while arguing against repealing Obamacare, and Twitter user @HapaxLegoman kicked off edits by swapping the tweet for one about Ted Cruz's daughter and butter. Gizmodo covered the trend within a day and invited readers to submit their own posters5.

Non-political templates widened the format. A 2010 Jane McGonigal TED Talk in which she presents a photograph and calls it "a classic gaming emotion" was turned into an exploitable by Tumblr user lothar on June 27, 2017, pulling 6,448 notes within two days3. Later entries include Lisa Simpson delivering a bullying report in the March 11, 2001 Simpsons episode "Bye, Bye, Nerdy," which spread as a photoshop template after a May 16, 2018 r/MemeEconomy post, and Chingford Foundation School's January 30, 2019 tweet of a person in a Spider-Man costume before a huge blank screen, which drew fill-in-the-screen edits topping 15,400 likes in a month.

How to Use This Meme

A typical Presentation Edit keeps the original speaker, audience, and framing intact, then swaps only the poster, chart, or projection screen with new text or an image. The joke often depends on the mismatch between the speaker's authority (a head of state, a TED speaker, a cartoon character) and the petty or absurd claim now on the visual aid.

Frequently Asked Questions

Presentation Edits

2012image macroclassic

Presentation Edits are a genre of exploitable image templates showing a person or cartoon character giving a talk with a visual aid, where editors swap the chart, slide, or projection screen with any joke, opinion, or image they want. The format traces back to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's cartoon bomb diagram at the UN in September 2012 and later spawned dedicated templates from Trump, Bernie Sanders, TED Talks, The Simpsons, and Spider-Man.

exploitable templates photoshop memes political satire memes object labeling 2012 memes

Overview

Presentation Edits are a genre of exploitable image templates built from photos of a person or cartoon character standing beside a chart, slide, poster, or blank projection screen, where editors alter the visual aid so it presents an absurd argument, controversial opinion, or joke2. Source images span political podium moments like Netanyahu at the UN1, sitcom stills such as Lisa Simpson at a school assembly, TED Talk clips, and candid photos of teenagers running slide decks. What ties the templates together is a speaker gesturing at a wide, editable surface where any text or image drops in cleanly.

How It Spread

The format picked up steam through political photo ops. On August 11, 2016, Donald Trump held up a large white chart showing declining U.S. home ownership at a National Association of Home Builders speech, and Hillary Clinton campaign staffer Rob Flaherty tweeted a blanked version with the instruction "go to town, folks," pulling more than 2,600 likes in 24 hours4. On January 4, 2017, Bernie Sanders brought a printed Donald Trump tweet to the Senate floor while arguing against repealing Obamacare, and Twitter user @HapaxLegoman kicked off edits by swapping the tweet for one about Ted Cruz's daughter and butter. Gizmodo covered the trend within a day and invited readers to submit their own posters5.

Non-political templates widened the format. A 2010 Jane McGonigal TED Talk in which she presents a photograph and calls it "a classic gaming emotion" was turned into an exploitable by Tumblr user lothar on June 27, 2017, pulling 6,448 notes within two days3. Later entries include Lisa Simpson delivering a bullying report in the March 11, 2001 Simpsons episode "Bye, Bye, Nerdy," which spread as a photoshop template after a May 16, 2018 r/MemeEconomy post, and Chingford Foundation School's January 30, 2019 tweet of a person in a Spider-Man costume before a huge blank screen, which drew fill-in-the-screen edits topping 15,400 likes in a month.

How to Use This Meme

A typical Presentation Edit keeps the original speaker, audience, and framing intact, then swaps only the poster, chart, or projection screen with new text or an image. The joke often depends on the mismatch between the speaker's authority (a head of state, a TED speaker, a cartoon character) and the petty or absurd claim now on the visual aid.

Frequently Asked Questions