By all accounts this week has been a weird one. As if this space isn't always a wild piece of work in the first place. News broke in the middle of the week that Grichka and Igor Bogdanoff had passed just days from each other in a rather unfortunate turn of events.
One can only begin to think about the viral nature of these two in regards to memes. They were literally everywhere thanks to artists pumping out the almighty meme. So what is it that makes a meme in the first place? Why did this become such a massive piece of our culture to the point where it is literally part of our everyday lives?
Let's start from a version of the beginning…Â
The Bogdanoff twins came to fame early through a French science fiction television program. They were embattled by the scientific community regarding their doctorate thesis, only to have that very same community apologize for the mistake. They were the focus of the world wide twitter space when it comes to the idea of pumping and dumping.
These guys left behind way more questions than answers in their passing. Everyone had a theory about the twins - it became such a thing that if a person had an image of them on their phone, you already know they are like minded.
So what are memes really?
"an element of a culture or system of behavior that may be considered to be passed from one individual to another by non genetic means, especially imitation."
Memes are like the ultimate social currency, a way to communicate that resonates immediately within the online community. There is literally a meme for everything including scam hackers trying to farm your passwords.
Memes have been the new generation of communication in many ways. It's been like wildfire since the first generation of memes came out, something almost inexplicable about the human psyche seems to draw us in. An image and words together somehow absolutely capture us as a collective in the moment we interact with them.
Then there are the twins that captured the world. Some would say it was because of the oddity of their looks, the massive cheeks - an almost alien aesthetic. Others would point to their ability to move the market. It's anybody's guess realistically but it would seem that is both.
They grew up in a French castle, which already makes them interesting. Then there is the entire science (Fiction?) angle. Were they doctors? Was it some elaborate piece of fiction about them getting their PHD's? Are they alien dictators that secretly ruled us while here on Earth? The theories are amazing to read through all around the net.
There was a point where the Bogdanoff twins were being touted as the immortal gods of this universe. People believed, or at least pushed the narrative, that even the Rothschild family bowed to Grechka and Igor. They somehow captivated the internet in such a way that makes them almost godlike.
Never underestimate the power of a meme. There are many sayings regarding how fast a lie can travel:
"A lie can travel halfway around the world before the truth can even get its boots on"
"Falsehood flies and the truth comes limping after it"
Then there are memes, which travel at fiber optic speeds with no way to quel them. If the truth is limping somewhere out there in the distance, no one can see it. The almighty meme can and will be truth and fiction in an instant. It makes perfect sense that the twins would be the subject of viral memes. They were, after all, highly involved in Crypto during its formative years as well as multiple other markets world wide.
They were heartthrobs in the French media in their youth and something entirely different in their later years. An anomaly that speaks through and through to a completely different generation than they came from. A special kind of meme rockstar that will likely be sorely missed going forward.
What will meme artists do without the Bogdanoffs? Where will they find a more interesting set of faces to put their words and messages upon? I suppose that is yet to be seen.
For now, we bid farewell to a set of consistent, though ever changing faces in the forefront of 2022. May they find their way into the sweet science fiction madness that they so adored.
