What is What Cleopatra May Have Looked Like?

It's a copypasta joke from February 2018 that attaches a mock Harvard University caption to pop culture images and video game models for comic effect.

Where did What Cleopatra May Have Looked Like come from?

Twitter user @lovemedown posted the original tweet on February 18, 2018, using a Britney Spears model from the 2002 game Britney's Dance Beat.

What does What Cleopatra May Have Looked Like mean?

The copypasta pretends a Harvard team built a 3D reconstruction of Cleopatra, then pairs that academic framing with a wildly implausible image like a pop star or cartoon mascot.

How do you use What Cleopatra May Have Looked Like?

Users typically paste the Harvard sentence next to a pop star, a 3D game render, a bad selfie, or a meme mascot, playing both the fan tribute angle and the deadpan fake citation.

Is What Cleopatra May Have Looked Like still popular?

The format peaked in February 2018, and Daily Dot predicted at the time that users would keep calling back to the joke for years.

What Cleopatra May Have Looked Like

2018copypastaclassic

Published October 5, 2026

What Cleopatra May Have Looked Like is a February 2018 Twitter copypasta that falsely credited Harvard scientists with a 3D reconstruction of the Egyptian queen, pairing the fake research with a Britney Spears video game render1. The post fooled a swath of readers and launched a wave of mock reconstructions.

copypasta memes hoax memes bait and switch memes stan culture memes 2018 memes

Overview

The copypasta leads with a boilerplate line, 'Scientists at Harvard University have created this 3D Model depicting what ancient Egyptian queen Cleopatra may have looked like,' followed by a conspicuously non-Cleopatra image4. The gag works on two levels. For readers who clock it, the format celebrates pop queens like Rihanna, Beyoncé, and Lady Gaga by posing them as the historical queen1. For readers who don't, the fake academic framing is convincing enough that angry replies demanding proper citations end up as part of the entertainment3.

Variations stretch the bit with 3D-rendered video game characters, selfies, bad meme pictures, and non-human mascots. Daily Dot called the format the female counterpart to the 2016 'ideal male body' meme, in which users posted comical takes on a fit male silhouette1.

Gallery

Origin & Background

Platform

Twitter

Creator

@lovemedown

Date

2018

On February 18, 2018, Twitter user @lovemedown posted the original tweet, pairing the Harvard copypasta with a Britney Spears render pulled from the 2002 PlayStation 2 rhythm game Britney's Dance Beat2. Daily Dot's Jay Hathaway identified the real source of the model and framed the punchline as fan devotion, writing that Britney is a true queen1. The tweet pulled over 3,800 retweets and 12,000 likes4.

How It Spread

Within hours the replies split in two directions. Some followers demanded a linked academic article and attacked @lovemedown for sharing 'unverified pictures'3. Others tried to correct the fictional Harvard team on Cleopatra's Greek and Macedonian ancestry, insisting a historical queen could not have been blonde4. The original poster openly marveled that so many readers missed the joke1.

Users in on the bit flooded the thread with entries. A variation from @danababy97 collected over 1,600 retweets and 7,200 likes, and @iconickkk's Club Penguin edit pulled around 290 retweets and 1,100 likes4. Daily Dot covered the pile-on in Jay Hathaway's writeup and predicted that users would call back to the format for years to come1. Nylon ran its own piece gathering the funniest reactions alongside the most clueless angry replies3.

Timeline

2018-02-18

Twitter user @lovemedown posts the original tweet pairing the Harvard copypasta with a 3D render of Britney Spears from Britney's Dance Beat.

2018-02

Daily Dot publishes Jay Hathaway's writeup identifying the Britney's Dance Beat model and documenting the angry and in-on-the-joke replies.

2018-02

Nylon covers the moment, collecting offended reactions from users who thought the tweet was real news.

How to Use This Meme

Users typically paste the Harvard sentence verbatim and attach a wildly implausible image: a pop star, cartoon character, blocky 3D game model, a selfie, or a meme mascot. The humor sharpens when the chosen image clashes hard with the deadpan academic framing1.