Confused Math Lady

2013

Date: March 2013 (telenovela air); 2016 (peak) · Place: Brazil; Vine and Twitter · Figures: Renata Sorrah, actress as Nazare Tedesco · TV Globo, network airing Senhora do Destino reruns · Tags: Reaction, Telenovela, PhotoCutout 01. Equations Floating Brazilian actress Renata Sorrah plays the villain Nazare Tedesco in TV Globo's 2004 telenovela Senhora do Destino. In a 2013 GIF compilation a frame of her squinting calculation is overlaid with floating mathematical equations. The GIF migrates from Tumblr to Twitter through 2014 and 2015. By 2016, with the rise of confused-Nick-Young face the same year, the equation-overlay Sorrah is the dominant visual for doing complicated mental math under pressure. 02. Apple Adopts Apple includes the Confused Math Lady symbology in iOS animoji and emoji-reaction marketing by 2018. Sorrah herself acknowledges the meme on Brazilian television with bemused grace. The face becomes the canonical pictogram for cognitive overload in the meme grammar of the decade. Sources • TV Globo, Senhora do Destino episode broadcast, 2004 • Folha de Sao Paulo, 'Renata Sorrah comenta meme da Nazare confusa', 20 May 2016 • KnowYourMeme entry, 'Confused Math Lady'