Ted Cruz is the Zodiac Killer

Police sketch of the Zodiac Killer, a serial killer of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Ted Cruz was born in 1970 and circulators of the meme do not believe that he was the Zodiac Killer.[1]

"Ted Cruz is the Zodiac Killer" is an Internet meme, a mock conspiracy theory suggesting that United States Senator and former 2016 presidential candidate Ted Cruz was the Zodiac Killer, an unidentified Californian serial killer of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Those who circulate the meme do not genuinely believe that Cruz, born in 1970, was the killer.[1]

Origin and spread

To be clear: the Zodiac Killer line is a joke. But it's a prolific joke, and one you can find printed on bumper stickers and a variety of black metal tees across the country. For Cruz, the Baptist senator for Texas and right-wing Republican presidential candidate, it's an unexpected foray into popular culture.

“
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— Dylan Baddour of the Houston Chronicle, April 26, 2016[2]

A January 2016 investigation by Miles Klee of The Daily Dot found the first use of the meme to be by a Twitter user in March 2013, as Cruz was speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference and vowing to repeal the Affordable Care Act.[3][4] The meme was not repeated until November 2014, by another Twitter user writing about Cruz's proposal against net neutrality.[4]

It continued in obscurity up to February 2016, when another Twitter user used Photoshop to edit a picture of a Republican debate in order to include "Is Ted Cruz the Zodiac Killer?" in the interactive ticker at the bottom.[1] That month, "is ted cruz the zodiac killer" was the second highest suggestion in Google's autocomplete for "is ted",[1] but by April it was not in the autocomplete at all.[5] News.com.au writer Matthew Dunn suggested that Google was censoring the search term, showing evidence that it got 89% of total searches when compared to other terms in the autocomplete.[5]

In April 2016, it was written that the meme "has a following. A Facebook group named for the meme has more than 27,000 members. A Google search turns up 621,000 hits, including exploratory articles by some of the biggest news publications on the web".[2]

In popular culture

Comedian Larry Wilmore made joking suggestions that Cruz was the Zodiac Killer, at the White House Correspondents' Dinner in April 2016

After the edited image showing the question on Google trends, the meme spread into popular culture.[1] Books about Cruz being the Zodiac Killer, including romantic ones, were listed on Amazon.com. Pro-choice activist Tim Faust sells t-shirts proclaiming Cruz to be the Zodiac Killer, and uses the revenue to help provide safe and affordable abortions to women in El Paso, Texas.[4]

In February 2016, Public Policy Polling asked registered voters in Florida ahead of the Republican primary if they believed Cruz to be the Zodiac Killer; 10% believed and 28% were not sure. The other 62% did not think he was.[6][7]

Comedian Larry Wilmore made references to the meme in his April 2016 routine at the White House Correspondents' Dinner, including a joke that Cruz was not campaigning to win the nomination, but to continue a murder spree.[8]

Also that month, a cocktail named "Ted Cruz is the Zodiac Killer" went on sale at a dive bar in Montrose, Houston, garnished with plastic machetes. Its creator Julie Lozano discovered the meme through Facebook group Bernie Sanders' Dank Meme Stash.[2]

The meme has been repeated, without disclaimer, in anti-Cruz opinion pieces in GQ, the Chicago Tribune and Jezebel.[9][10][11]

Reception

Lindsey Martin, a Twitter user who helped circulate the meme, told NPR that she did so because it is "so obviously untrue...if there was any way that it could possibly be true I would be scared to joke about it just because of the repercussions".[1] The Verge writer Kaitlyn Tiffany opined that some may consider the subject of the meme to be "distasteful and irresponsible, even dangerous", but she considers Cruz's statements on Planned Parenthood to be exactly like that.[4] According to Lozano, who calls Cruz a "dangerous zealot", the point of the meme is to "[demonize] his character".[2]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Sanders, Sam (26 February 2016). "#MemeOfTheWeek: Ted Cruz And The Zodiac Killer". NPR. Retrieved 1 May 2016.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Baddour, Dylan (26 April 2016). "Killer cocktail named after Ted Cruz, sort of". Houston Chronicle. Retrieved 1 May 2016.
  3. ↑ Klee, Miles (25 January 2016). "Ted Cruz has yet to deny that he's the Zodiac Killer". The Daily Dot. Retrieved 1 May 2016.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Tiffany, Kaitlyn (26 February 2016). "Who called Ted Cruz the Zodiac Killer, why, and is he?". The Verge. Retrieved 1 May 2016.
  5. 1 2 Dunn, Matthew (21 April 2016). "Google removes ‘Is Ted Cruz the Zodiac Killer’ suggestion, despite it being most popular search". News.com.au. Retrieved 1 May 2016.
  6. ↑ Stuart, Tessa (26 February 2016). "Is Ted Cruz the Zodiac Killer? Maybe, Say 38 Percent of Florida Voters". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 1 May 2016.
  7. ↑ "Trump Leads Rubio in Florida- Even Head to Head" (PDF). Public Policy Polling. Retrieved 1 May 2016.
  8. ↑ Ayala, Christine (1 May 2016). "Larry Wilmore: Of course ‘everybody hates’ Ted Cruz, he’s the Zodiac Killer". Dallas Morning News. Retrieved 1 May 2016.
  9. ↑ Moore, Jack (27 April 2016). "Ted Cruz Is Doing Very Little to Disprove He’s the Zodiac Killer". GQ. Retrieved 1 May 2016.
  10. ↑ Huppke, Rex (25 April 2016). "Ted Cruz's cowardly anti-transgender stance". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 1 May 2016.
  11. ↑ Reich, JE (24 April 2016). "Ted Cruz's Token Black Friend Swears He's Not Racist, Really". Jezebel. Retrieved 1 May 2016.
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