Entertainment

Don't Be Meme To Drake

by Marisa LaScala

When Drake started his monologue on Saturday Night Live, he got right to the point. Yes, he's Canadian, he admitted, but he made one thing clear: "No, you can't move in with me if Donald Trump wins." Once that was out of the way, he made sure the SNL audience saw him in a new like. The beard was gone, which still surprises me every time I see it (and reminds me of his Jimmy Brooks days), and he asked that people look beyond the obvious and see the real him — at least, the non-meme him. Yes, Drake used his SNL monologue to prove that he's not just a meme.

He did it, of course, through his music. "I started hearing from my whole fam that I got clowned on Instagram," he sang. "It feels like I'm in a bad dream, that I got turned into another meme." He proceeded to run through and sing about how humiliated he feels when he gets included in a meme—and he shouted out a lot of real-life memes in the process. (My favorite? "Started in a wheelchair now we're here," with a picture from the Degrassi days.)

So, what are some of the other memes he used?

There's the infamous "Are You Going to Finish Those Fries?"

He also mentioned the meme that put his face on E.T.'s body. (And also one that put his on progressive Flo's body — is that one made up?). Conversely, he shouted out the one that put his beard on president Obama's face. It goes on and on. There were so many, he even did a super-quick Rihanna impression when he sang about a few of them.

I don't know what it is about Drake that makes him so inherently meme-able. He does have a few easy things to latch on to: his beard, his "Hotline Bling" dance moves (previously the subject of an SNL sketch), his history on a teen soap. Despite his pleas on SNL, I don't expect the memes will stop anytime soon. His SNL episode might even launch a few more.

Watch the full video below:

Image: Getty