This is the story of one photo’s journey from unremarkable news item to object of international intrigue.
What ultimately happens to all of the online photos we post, or that are posted of us? Could any of us have a meme-worthy doppelgänger on another continent? How can we be sure? Russian nationalists seized on this resemblance, and with regional tensions flaring, the fake bumblebee president went viral.Īn example of pride or hatred, weakness or strength - depending on who’s looking - the photo raises other, less obvious questions. After circulating mostly in Latin America, a Russian speaker noticed that the Bumblebee looked like Toomas Hendrik Ilves, then the president of Estonia. The photo ricocheted across multiple national internets, a real-life butterfly effect that was amplified by social media. Years later, it reemerged in Russia as a homophobic meme aimed at the president of Estonia. It was taken by a wire photographer at a gay pride celebration in Buenos Aires in 2011.
Is he supposed to be a butterfly? A bumblebee? Regardless, the image is ridiculous, just the kind that the internet loves. Arms bent, golden antennae cocked, he grins at the camera with unadulterated joy.
He stares right at us, this bespectacled older man in his zany homemade costume.
