We Need To Go Deeper

2010

Date: 16 July 2010 · Place: Reddit and 4chan, source image from Inception (Warner Bros.) · Figures: Christopher Nolan, director · Leonardo DiCaprio, source still · Tags: Image Macro, Recursion, Film Capture 01. Inception Releases Christopher Nolan's Inception opens in North America on 16 July 2010. Within days a screenshot of Leonardo DiCaprio with the caption WE NEED TO GO DEEPER is in circulation on Reddit and 4chan as the punchline to nested-premise jokes. The macro becomes the standard caption for any image with embedded images, recursive Photoshops, or arguments that escalate by adding qualifiers. 02. The Film That Memes Itself Inception is among the first major studio releases whose dialogue is mass-memed in real time during its theatrical run. The phenomenon prefigures the social media marketing logic that will dominate later franchises. The recursion joke also forms a pair with Yo Dawg as the era's two canonical templates for nested structure. Where Yo Dawg names the recursion, We Need To Go Deeper proposes that one should commit to it. Sources • KnowYourMeme, 'We Need to Go Deeper' • Warner Bros., Inception press kit (July 2010) • The Awl, 'Inception Memes' (22 July 2010)