Meme: Y-Leo

Lucky Tennyson:

In this meme, we have a young Leonardo DiCaprio. Should I say young Leo or Y Leo for short, aka, the best Leo, circa 1995. Y Leo was lit directly by the sun on the right side of his face with a slight shadow on his left cheek, perhaps alluding to good versus bad, hope versus despair.

Lucky Tennyson :

Beyond his face, we have a bit of a sepia color tone, permeating everything which could possibly allude to the film being set in Victorian England or, I don't know, a novelty photo booth, or something like that. But back to Y Leo. He has wind swept, slightly greasy hair, parted to his right side. And his face exhibits anguish, sadness, anger, mingled with a rock bottom, as his eyes are squinting, eyebrows furrowed, cheeks squeezed around his parted lips that reveal only the top line of mostly straight teeth.

Lucky Tennyson:

The emotion on his face is agony, despair, sadness. But looking at the meme, one can't help but laugh at the melodrama. It's almost self-aware in its grandiose sadness. It draws away any attention from whatever Y Leo is going through and it's just completely over the top. And it makes it the perfect meme to send to someone when they're going through a hard time, both to say, "Hey, I get you. I understand what you're going through. But if Y Leo can get through it, you can get through it too. And also don't take yourself too seriously."

Lucky Tennyson:

But below his face and before I finish the description, we have a text in italics, which adds to the melodrama and nails in the point. The italics read, "How am I supposed to live?" So here we have Y Leo crying into the sun and just screaming, "How am I supposed to live?" And we've all been there. We've all known what that feels like to feel like the entire world has gone. We no longer have anywhere to go. What are we going to do? How am I going to deal with this? How do we cope? And where do I go from here? Am I a child? Am I an adult? Am I capable?

Lucky Tennyson:

So, the reason I picked this meme is because a friend of mine texted me, asking for advice on how to cope with rejection, both in their personal life and their professional life. And I think that's something that we can all relate to.

Lucky Tennyson:

And instead of telling them what I've been through in my own rejection, or at least telling them that off the bat and taking them off of their pedestal, I wanted to sum up my advice and the process of overcoming rejection with something a little bit melodramatic and that wasn't a take away what they're going through. But I wanted to depict both the horror that rejection makes one feel, as well as, over time the comedy of errors we find ourselves in when we forget that there's still a world of opportunity out there once we get past whatever, or whoever it is that rejected us.

Lucky Tennyson:

Because when we're rejected or confronted with rejection, whether it be professional or personal, it can really seem as though the world gets pretty small. Rejection can cloud every corner of our thoughts, actions, and responses. But once this rejection gets behind us and we can look back, we can usually laugh at how far we went downhill.

Lucky Tennyson:

When you think about people who've gone through breakups and then you do crazy, crazy things. And then you get past that. You're like, "Man, breakups make you do crazy stuff." Or when you lose a job and then you decided to watch Netflix for a week and eat Postmates and spend all of your money, even though you don't have any money coming in.

Lucky Tennyson:

Once you get through that and you get the job or you get the new partner, you're able to really look back and laugh at that part of your life. Yeah. And now I know what you might be thinking, which is we shouldn't make fun of Y Leo. He was in, What's Eating Gilbert Grape, and Titanic, and Romeo and Juliet. And maybe this meme is from all of those films. The kid's in his prime, let's not laugh at Y Leo. But I disagree and it's because I did the research.

Lucky Tennyson:

The meme comes from a film called Total Eclipse. Yes. Like Total Eclipse of the Heart by Bonnie Tyler, which I will most certainly not be making fun of here or anywhere. But the film received a one-star review. So, did Total Eclipse and Y Leo's career end? No. Was he devastated in this frame and this meme? Yes. But did he continue and become Leo and not just Y Leo? The answer's yes.

Lucky Tennyson:

So, I take away from my favorite meme and this meme, which I'm explaining too, is that seriously, when we feel grief, or we feel rejection, or whatever is bringing us down, yes, the whole world seems to be closing in on itself. And it's hard to see outside of those bars, but we shouldn't freak ourselves out.

Lucky Tennyson:

You'll pull up, the world will open up again and you will find the way you were supposed to be living. And yeah, you might fall down again, but so did Y Leo in making this film, which got one star. But you know what? Y Leo kept kicking. I found this film and the meme still brings this film to life. So even if you perform at 25% or one star, you're going to be okay.

Lucky Tennyson:

So, I think the lesson here is to not take it all so seriously, to not take ourselves too seriously. So yeah, that's my meme. That's why I share it when I or a friend is feeling low. And it's good to laugh at ourselves sometimes.

Speaker 2:

Lucky Tennyson is a producer, creative and director living in Los Angeles, California. Find him at luckytennyson.com. If you want to be on the Say My Meme podcast, pull out your phone and describe your favorite meme, emailing it to hello@saymymeme.com or find the full instructions at saymymeme.com.

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