Netflix’s The Witcher is growing by leaps and bounds in popularity online. While its debut during the holiday season appeared to stall the creation of an instant, explosive fandom for the show (the books and video games have long enjoyed a huge fan base), The Witcher continues to gather force.
Word of mouth, memes, and countless covers of “Toss a Coin to Your Witcher” have helped with the spread. Last week, the show reached #1 on Tumblr’s fandometrics—a position no doubt fueled by the humorous posts that are emerging in abundance.
The Witcher lends itself to memeing. I recently wrote about how Geralt’s smiling sword has a darker side, but most of what’s being generated from the fan community is good winking fun. The tongue-in-cheek humor undergirding the show is the perfect meme base, providing the characters with over-the-top situations and furnishing the actors with exaggerated expressions just waiting to be screengrabbed and gif’d. And the show’s dramatic relationships are particularly easy to represent via, say, SpongeBob SquarePants or Parks and Rec.
Kaila Hale-Stern (she/her) is a content director, editor, and writer who has been working in digital media for more than fifteen years. She started at TMS in 2016. She loves to write about TV—especially science fiction, fantasy, and mystery shows—and movies, with an emphasis on Marvel. Talk to her about fandom, queer representation, and Captain Kirk. Kaila has written for io9, Gizmodo, New York Magazine, The Awl, Wired, Cosmopolitan, and once published a Harlequin novel you'll never find.
