More and more images of Kylian Mbappé in the guise of a dictator appear on social media and in stadiums. The captain of the French national team is represented with a military jacket and medals on his chest. This is a long-standing meme, most likely born from a creator’s comment.
There are two streams of images in this World Cup. The first is that of matchesnow interminable. The goals, extra time, penalties and actions of the protagonists of the tournament. Of course, in Italy the time It doesn’t help to watch live broadcasts and therefore often these images are then digested through the highlights collected on social media. The second is the huge flow of memes. It will be generative artificial intelligence, it will be that these World Cups objectively have a remarkable amount of stories but the amount of edits, videos generated with artificial intelligence and modified images that come from this tournament is disproportionate.
Let’s talk about a parallel ecosystem with millions of views. Even with a very high production level. There are videos of Haaland who leads Viking boats against French galleons. There is the reconstruction of Germany’s defeat against Paraguay in which the Germans are defeated in an ambush in the jungle. And there is a version of Haaland who transforms into a to defeat his opponents Majin Buu giant ready to chew and spit out footballs. But on top of all this are the meme about Kylian Mbappé.
The captain of France is one of most watched players of the tournament by memers. Class 1998a life to Paris Saint Germainnow number 10 at Real Madrid, leads one of the strongest national teams in the tournament. Indeed, according to many bookmakers it is definitely there candidate for victory. It wouldn’t exactly be new: in the last two editions France has always reached the Final. They won in 2018 against Croatia and lost in 2022 against Argentina. The face of Mbappé he now appears in thousands of videos in which he is represented as a dictator. Military jacket, medal, sometimes even dark glasses.
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The videos are also based on real clips, sometimes out of context. Mbappé orders what to do to the technicians who have to fix the lawn. Mbappé breaks the fourth wall and hypnotizes the spectators. Mbappé leaves the pitch with national coach Didier Deschamps bowing to him. The meme also came to life out of the membersl: photos are starting to appear in the hands of fans too. In one party organized by Portugal fans this image appeared with the writing next to it: “The VAR awaits Kylian’s approval”. And again. In a video of the French national team, Mbappé’s teammates are seen calling him Mobutudictator of Zaire. What is now the Democratic Republic of Congo.
How the dictator Mbappé meme was born
To find the origins of this meme you need to look through the meme encyclopedia, the Know Your Meme portal reports that the French creator’s comment is at the origins of everything Mohamed Henni. At the moment his Instagram profile has two million followersamong the videos pinned above there is a clip in which he cuts a lit television with a chainsaw and another in which he beats several screens. Mohamed Henni would have used Mbappé’s name to launch a kebab dish, featuring a bread “round like Mbappé’s head”.
From here, at least according to the reconstruction of Goal.comin March 2024 a warning would have been issued by the footballer’s lawyers. It is at this point that Henni commented: “He reported me for this! For a kebab. ‘Mba – report’. Mbappé has turned his name into a dictatorship. Mbappé.” The Internet did the rest. Since 2024 the association between Mbappé and the figure of a dictator has arrived in thousands of images and videos. In a clip from two million likes Mbappé is seen arguing with some players from the teams he played for who were later regularly transferred in other clips. Perhaps the reconstructions are a little imaginative but for a good meme you also sacrifice a bit of reality.
