What’s up with those Zaddy memes?
Are zaddy memes problematic? Where did zaddy memes come from anyway? Can anyone become a zaddy, or is zaddiness assigned at birth – an innate, hardwired, inborn characteristic, static and immutable as, I dunno, eye colour? Who’s your zaddy?
Every once in awhile a meme comes along that takes you by surprise. Perchance it is the sheer shock value of the content, the controversial nature of whatever the meme happens to be poking fun at. Whatever, it forces you to slow down and reconsider literally everything.
Sometimes the meme is dumb. Sometimes the meme is frivolous. And yet sometimes… sometimes the striking thing about the meme is that it has the opposite effect. Its very profundity, its very heft, its pure unshaven verité, feels somehow baked into the very linguistic scaffolding of consciousness like vanilla in a sponge cake.
To wit – today friends we are interrogating the scope, form, function and implications of the meme they call ‘zaddy’.
WHAT IS A ZADDY?
You’re probably thinking, hey, zaddy sounds a lot like daddy. Is it related to that? The weird, kinda-porn-inspired idea that young ladies (etc) all have a weird thing for their fathers and therefore blurt out ‘daddy’ whenever they’re sufficiently aroused?
Yeah, that’s about the size of it I’m afraid. It more or less boils down to ‘older man who I’d definitely sleep with, but could also totally in a parallel universe be my papa. Or, like, my papa’s golf buddy.’
But, but! With a little extra spice. A venerable dude, with an arresting acid tang. An extra ‘z’ for ‘zesty’, if you like. Apparently the first zaddy, the one against whom all others are judged is Zayn Malik. See what they did there?
Zayn the zaddy was in a boyband called One Direction, with Harry Styles, who definitely is not a zaddy. Too fresh-faced, too clean, too fundamentally metrosexual.
Zayn Malik, its worth clarifying, is 30 years old. And technically a father – he co-parents with Gigi Hadid, if you please – but that’s not the point here. A zaddy needn’t have actual spawn. It’s a state of mind, you see. Zaddiness.
It’s about fashion sense, confidence, swagger. Perhaps there’s a fleck of grey in the beard, sure. But there’s always great clothes draped over those broad manly shoulders. Zaddy absolutely has a car, a good one, and he knows how to get you home in it.
ZADDY SONG
Although the zaddy meme only properly gained currency during the past year or so, it was being used as far back as 2016, in this honestly kind of meh song by Ty Dollar $ign.
“She keep on callin’ me zaddy, she keep on callin’ me zaddy
“She keep on callin’ me zaddy, that lil’ baby got a fatty.”
If you’re still looking for a helpful definition (good luck) online publication Jezebel offers this helpful ready reckoner, for horny younger types eager to spot the difference between a rare zaddy and a common or garden-variety daddy when hunting for older, usually more experienced, definitely richer quarry in the wild:
Are you ready for this?
‘A zaddy is a guy you look at, and think, zamn.’
Well there you have it.
ZADDY EXAMPLES
Jezebel also helpfully offered a roundup of men who are zaddy. So who was on this sacred scroll of zaddiness? Who made the cut?
Idris Elba, Jason Momoa, Oscar Isaac, “Justin Theroux in sweatpants,” “Jon Hamm unleashed,” and “John Slattery, eternal zaddy.” So the term isn’t exactly new.
Pedro Pascal, boy there’s a hot zaddy. George Clooney is a shade too old now, probably – you might argue he was a zaddy before it was cool.
It’s a great meme, because when you know what it means, you just know it. On sight. The very essence of zaddy, according to the people that make decisions about these weighty matters, is that you know it when you see it.
ZADDY MERCH
Some folks (ahem) have even tried cashing in on the zaddy phenomenon.
Kim Kardashian used the Kimoji Instagram page to try and sell zaddy-branded merchandise around fathers day, and hey looky here there’s even a screenshot of her wearing it.
Make your own memes and custom GIFs celebrating the zaddy trend with a little help from you buddies over at Memix.
There’s literally thousands of templates and infinite variety of weird, quasi-sexual memes you can create and share on all platforms, to your freaky little heart’s content.
Maybe have a word with your therapist about it though eh. Something’s off about it, right? Just saying.
Hey, IS STEALING MEMES ILLEGAL?
While we’re here, does anybody know IS IT PRONOUNCED GIF OR JIF?