Memes / Hamilton

• Yay HAMLET!◊ Not only did it become a rallying cry for fans, there are official T-shirts with #YAYHAMLET sold at the show.
• Posting pictures of old portraits done of the historical figures featured in the show, with lyrics from the show (especially ones that sound silly out of context — and sometimes even in context) typed over them.
• James Madison in general, especially his completely flat delivery of "...France." in "Cabinet Battle #2."
• Photoshopping other people's faces over those of the Schuyler sisters when they strike a pose during their eponymous song.
• Using "Non-Stop" and all the lines about Hamilton's endless writing as some sort of motivational tool for doing schoolwork. Often with a reference to "making Alexander proud."
  • "Non-Stop" references are also common in regards to Lin-Manuel Miranda himself, who between starring in his own show and developing the #Ham4Ham shows and writing songs for The Force Awakens and Moana AND maintaining an active social media presence, really does seem to write "every second he's alive."
• "HERCULES MULLIGAN!", which has become the fandom's version of the "John Cena" meme.
• Comparing the Schuyler Sisters to the Heathers in Heathers, mainly because their color scheme (of red, green and yellow) is extremely similar to the Heather's portrayal in Heathers: The Musical.
• Jokes about Jefferson's status as Ambassador to France, referencing Charles Guiteau's delusions in the show Assassins.
• "WORK!", often along with the pose that the Schuyler sisters take when they say that line.
• "Get over here, Hamilton trash!" or "the trash of the thing" Context: It's in reference to a Halloween #Ham4Ham show, where Miranda explained to some confused onlookers about the costumes of some Tumblr fans: "The kids, when they like something on the internet, they call themselves the trash of the thing."
• "I will never be satisfied." is often used by fans to explain why they saw the show multiple times.
• Crossing the show over with The West Wing.
• "Love is love is love is love is love" from Lin-Manuel's acceptance speech at the Tonys.
• "What Comes Next?" was applied quite a bit to Britain withdrawing from the European Union.
• "Teach the World how to say goodbye" in July 2016 when most of the original Broadway cast had to leave the show, including Lin-Manuel Miranda and Philippa Soo. The fandom repeated this for a few weeks on hearing the contracts would expire.
• The many, many graduates who made references to Hamilton lyrics by decorating their caps.
• Referencing a certain Key & Peele sketch in combination with Burr's actions at the end of act 2. "Somebody tells me- you done messed up, A-A-Ron!!"
• King George III's line "Awesome. Wow." gets repeated a lot.
• Peggy Schuyler's "AND PEGGY!", said during the Schuyler sisters number when Peggy is clearly trying to avoid My Friends... and Zoidberg status, gets usually used in videos where the "AND PEGGY!" is replaced with other shows' mention of a Peggy. The PBS documentary Hamilton's America even ends with it as The Stinger.
• "How does a bastard, orphan, son of a whore..." gets used to describe controversial people who ended up in high places, generally being tweaked according to the person.
• "I'm a general! Wheeeeee!" got T-shirts made out of it.
• The line between Hamilton and Lafayette, "Immigrants: we get the job done!", got a lot of mileage, especially since not long after the musical's debut, immigration became a hotly debated topic again. To the point that it got an entire song named after it on The Hamilton Mixtape, which sampled the line heavily (and other parts of "Yorktown"). It was also openly referenced (by a character who's definitely a hypocrite in referencing it) in Rian Johnson's 2019 film Knives Out.
• Someone dubbed over "We Know" with this now immortal line: If I can prove that I never touched my balls / Will you promise not to tell another soul what you saw?
• One that crosses into meta, "Find someone who looks at you the way Lin-Manuel Miranda looks at literally everyone.", based on Miranda generally appearing on photographs with a rather intense gaze towards whoever accompanies him in the picture. Later acknowledged by Miranda himself.
• Miranda’s habit of Coquettish Lip Biting in several infamous selfies has also become a prominent meme, with many jokes revolving around editing the expression onto various people and objects. Someone even made a face mask with the bitten lip on the front.
• Burr being "the worst", taken from Lafayette's line in "The Story of Tonight (reprise)". This is part of the reason why his Fan Nickname is "Human Disaster Aaron Burr".
• Making mac and cheese Jefferson's Trademark Favourite Food, much to the others' disgust. This is the result of the fandom running with the fact that he actually brought the stuff to America, and apparently ordered 70 pounds of noodles between November and December 1809 alone. People in the fandom often refer to Jefferson as "Macaroni Fucker" because of this.
• Singing "You don't have the votes" at the failure of any legislation the person is against. Became an Ascended Meme when even the ACLU started using it. Often followed by Jefferson's equally memetic "Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha".
• References to "being in the room where it happens" are commonly applied to either politics or to seeing the show in person.
• Rewriting Philip's birthday poem in "Take A Break" so that the poem is about him being shot by George Eacker. One example◊.
• Many students are also using lyrics and imagery from Hamilton to decorate their graduation caps. It's called the Hamilgrad cap.
• Hell, just SEEING Lin-Manuel Miranda or other Hamilton alums on literally ANYTHING EVER on YouTube prompts commenters to remark, "I came as soon as I heard", which is taken from the song "The Reynolds Pamphlet".
• Southern motherFUCKING DEMOCRATIC REPUBLICANS!
• The movie's release on Disney+ spawned a lot of Disney-related jokes. Especially around King George III, like "King George is my favorite Disney Princess!" or comparing him to Kristoff, since they share an actor. Lin himself got in on it during an interview, clarifying that while the Schuyler sisters are definitely not Disney Princesses, he's not certain if George is now Disney royalty.
• "Groffsauce," with the close-ups on Jonathan Groff giving a quite uncomfortable view of the epic amount of drool that pours out of him in his most emotional moments.
• Miku Binder Thomas Jefferson, an infamous piece of fanart that reimagines Daveed Diggs' Jefferson in modern-day, as a trans man... who's also an anime-obsessed furry who is a cocaine addict and drug dealer and wears a Hatsune Miku binder. Needless to say, the character became a symbol of the more... bizarre and unsavory side of the Hamilton fandom and theatre fandoms in general. The artwork originated on Tumblr and was moderately infamous there until mid 2020, when it went viral on other social media platforms ahead of Hamilton's release on Disney+.
  • It would also later evolve into a meme depicting a transmasc Miku wearing a Thomas Jefferson binder.
• Eliza's sudden, mysterious gasp at the end of the filmed version became the subject of many memes that pretended to interpret its meaning.
• "#riphamilton", with tons of jokes about how a hashtag of the basketball player's name makes it look like something bad has happened to the show.
  • Even better, there were plenty of tweets joking that we're suddenly #riphamilton-ing a man who died 216 years ago (and counting).
• King George III's "You'll be back, soon you'll see, You'll remember you belong to me..." being used when referring to something one feels they should break away from but struggle to do so.
• "You've married an Icarus, now go and get my gun." ^ExplanationThe original line in the cut song "First Burn" is "You've married an Icarus, he has flown too close to the sun." Many YouTube comments say that Angelica should have said the replacement line instead.
• "Scamilton", following in the footsteps of "Illegal Heathers" before it. In 2022, a Texan church group put on a hilariously bad version of the show without securing the rights. Performances range from passable to subpar, any cursing and risque elements are cut, lyrics are outright altered to give the show a more religious connotation, and it ends with a 15-minute-long sermon wherein homosexuality is equated to vices like drug addiction. Needless to say, the internet had quite a bit of fun mocking it.
  • "Eliza is definitely the pastor's daughter." ^ExplanationMore often than not, the actress who played Eliza is embarrassingly off-key, and so ill-suited to sing the leading lady (especially compared to Angelica's actress) that many believed there was some nepotism at play. Apparently, the actors playing Hamilton and Eliza are married, which is likely why she also plays Maria. There's also speculation that either King George's or potentially George Washington's actors are the pastor.
  • "But I'm not afraid, my hope is in Jesus." ^ExplanationAn altered line in "That Would Be Enough" — the original lyric is "But I'm not afraid, I know who I married." It is often used as an example of the lyrics being altered to include a ham-fisted religious message.
  • "OnE lAsT TiIiImE." ^ExplanationGeorge Washington's actor's singing is of extremely mixed quality and lacks vocal range, but while he generally starts off somewhat strong, he quickly gets worse, and by the time "One Last Time" rolls around, his performance is off-key and in the wrong octave. As a result, it became one of the most memorable parts of "Scamilton".
  • "I introduced hundreds of kids to Jesus" "Oh No"^ExplanationThe church's version of "Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story" changes the lyrics to be about Eliza supposedly indoctrinating orphaned children to Christianity which many found narm at best or, to those who have experience religious trauma, horrifying. Quite a few people also joked about Eliza murdering the children in question due to the unintentionally sinister phrasing.
  • “Oh southern (awkward pause) Democratic Republicans!” ^ExplanationDuring “Washington on your side”, all 3 performers stop singing in the middle of the song for a few seconds in order to not sing the F-word (as almost all swearing or sexual references in the show were censored, at least those that were recognized). The hilariously poor and unintentionally funny attempt at censorship became instantly infamous for viewers of the production.
  • “Cause he’s been throwing hands with the ambassador of France!” ^ExplanationAnother mocked line change/censor from the show, particularly memorable as it creates a rather funny contradiction with history (as in real life Thomas Jefferson WAS the ambassador to France, the line in the real show is “Cause he’s been kicking ass as the ambassador to France), on top of the show seemingly misunderstanding what “kicking ass” means. Fans have joked about Thomas fighting with himself or another version of him as a result.
• Hamilton's line that begins "Look at my son..." from "Dear Theodosia" has become a popular soundtrack on TikTok for videos of pets, especially cats, usually doing something funny or weird.

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