The Saddam Hussein’s Hiding Place meme originates from a British Broadcasting Corporation publication on December 14, 2003. The report focused on Operation Red Dawn, a military operation by the US to capture the president of Iraq Saddam Hussein who was on run for 9 months. In the report, an illustration showcased a former Iraqi ruler hiding at a depth of about 2 meters underground in a hole where there was barely enough space to lie down.
Format
There have been multiple variations of the meme. But amongst the most popular, the diagram was extended to accommodate something else. Also, there have been memes where the red body (Saddam Hussein) in the illustration has been used in other congested or uninhabitable places.
Spread
After publishing the report on December 14, 2003, the graphic was shared multiple times. A day later, BBC republished the report with a detailed diagram but the image had already been circulated. 11 years later, on January 9th, 2015, Tumblr user bobbyboy11 posted the first meme on the blog metagrammed. The post received more than 60 notes. But the meme became viral in the first week of July 2021.
On July 1st 2021, Twitter user @jaketropolis posted a tweet comparing “first night in minecraft vs. 100th night in minecraft.” The tweet received more than 3400 retweets and 27000 likes. A day later, Youtuber La Mouche -Saja- posted multiple videos on the meme among which the Whatsapp car received more than 3000 views.
Popular Examples
