Heroes and Villains in Memes on the 2022 Russian Invasion of Ukraine

Abstract

Wars and other acute social conflicts are a fruitful ground for the emergence of heroes and villains. This is true for the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine: both the news media and ordinary people have found targets for villainisation (Russian president Vladimir Putin) and heroisation (Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy) since the outbreak of war. The article discusses how the public images of the two leaders appeared in internet memes collected in Estonian and Belarusian social media between February 24 and April 8, 2022. Analysing them against the backdrop of the (stereo)typical traits of heroes and villains in folklore, we outline how the new media format affects the way these two juxtaposed images are portrayed in memes. We also focus on the juxtaposition as one of the key strategies both in the processes of villainisation/heroisation and of humour production. The clear juxtaposition between good and evil in war humour distinguishes it from disaster jokes, which do not usually take a definite stance towards their targets.