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For those who follow us on social media, memes may be the best part of Snark Week. It all started innocently: during our first Snark Week, I remembered spotting Anne Hathaway’s thong through her semi-sheer nightgown in Becoming Jane. I thought “that’s not really worthy of a full post,” so I posted a screencap of it to Facebook … and a tradition was born! We started making memes right and left immediately, and now it’s become one of our favorite things: hunting down images of shitty costumes, and then coming up with something snarky to say about them.
The only hitch with Snark Week memes is they go by so fast! We love them (and you love them too, which makes us happy!) so we end up with a ton, and we only post them to social media (Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter — until we abandon it because Elon Musk is a tool), although occasionally they’ll later make it into a blog post. But they make me laugh so much that I often go back and look through them. So, for posterity, in case you’ve forgotten or missed individual memes or don’t follow us on social media, here’s some that make me cackle. Follow us on social media if you want to see this season’s corpus!
2015 Memes
Reign (2013-17): This just literally looks like FestivalCore.
Van Helsing (2004): That’s a LOT OF UNDERBOOB.
Gunpowder Treason & Plot (2004): Possibly my greatest moment of genius. You can put this on my tombstone.
The Other Boleyn Girl (2008): I swear my grandmother had that embroidered on a couch pillow.
The Tudors (2007-10): SO MUCH WTFROCK.
The Tudors (2007-10): Memes work great when the actors’ facial expressions/poses contribute.
The Other Boleyn Girl (2008): Nobody wants to wear matchy-matchy with their sister, come on!
2016 Memes
War and Peace (2016): There is NOTHING Regency, let alone historical, about this.
Young Catherine (1991): I don’t know, but that fabric looks like it cost about 50 cents/yard.
Saints & Strangers (2015): I am overwhelmed by this varied and creative color palette.
El Cid (1961): I mean sure, it’s the 1960s, but whatever is holding up those boobs looks bulletproof.
The Other Boleyn Girl (2003): Sometimes the memes just write themselves.
Elizabeth the Golden Age (2007): Well she is the queen, she can set the menu!
The Messenger (1999): The sheer covering just adds extra spiderweb grossness here.
Beowulf: Return to the Shieldlands (2016): I mean, COME ON.
2017 Memes
Wolf Hall (2015): One of Trystan’s greatest moments of genius.
Nana (1955): Sometimes we just go for funny!
North and South (1985): This one kills me because I feel like the right-hand chick is looking in her giant gaping neckline for the missing keys!
North and South (1985): WE’RE THESPIANS.
The Libertine (2004): Modern actress just don’t know how to handle more than a half yard of fabric!
Salem (2014): I mean, who approved this?
When Calls the Heart (2014): I spewed whatever I was drinking when I saw this one.
Mercy Street (2016): How many fabrics are in this dress??
A Quiet Passion (2017): SO HAPPY about our cheezoid fan!
2018 Memes
North and South (1985): Another spewed beverage.
Reign (2013-17): Every time I look at this, I see a panda!
Frontier (2016-18): Hey, we’re not always SFW!
Knightfall (2017): Words failed.
Knightfall (2017): Did they realize the fuck up at 4am and just say “make it work”?
Knightfall (2017): The show that keeps on giving.
The Greatest Showman (2017): One of our more honest memes.
The White Princess (2017): This outfit keeps me up at night.
The White Princess (2017): It really depends how you pair it.
2019 Memes
Mary Queen of Scots (2018): So. Much. Denim.
Anna and the King of Siam (1946): Usually classic films do better than this, at least in terms of using enough fabric.
Maria Theresia (2017): WHO THOUGHT THIS WAS IN ANY WAY FLATTERING.
2020 Memes
Kiss Me Kate (1958): Not our funniest year, but this one still makes me giggle!
2021 Memes
Seven Seas to Calais (1962): Trystan made a dog joke! 😍
Lucrezia (1968): The bent over position + the facial expression = comedy genius.
Ladyhawke (1985): Trystan was ON TREND with the pandemic memes!
Pedro e Inês (2005): I keep wondering if you turned it back to front, or upside down, would it make more sense?
Blackbeard (2006): Ow.
Maria Theresia (2017): You can’t go wrong with a shitty wig.
2022 Memes
The Sword and the Rose (1953): She looks naked by 16th-century standards.
Love in Chains (2019): Hey, our humor isn’t always highbrow!
Love in Chains (2019): I almost want to watch this for the deeply shitty costumes, but I think I would lose my will to live. Is she supposed to be Ursula the Sea Witch?
Love in Chains (2019): Are her boobs SUPPOSED to be this droopy?
Bridgerton (2020): Snark applies to everyone!
The Cook of Castamar (2021): I love playing “what does that remind me of?”
What’s been your favorite Snark Week meme over the years?
Long live the memes!
Frabjous! However, while clearly meant to be ‘Kiss Me Kate’ [one of my favourite musicals] that’s not the cast of the film…am I missing something? Quite feasible as I have terrible facial recognition with my autism, but is it deliberate?
It’s from a Hallmark TV production, so probably not the version you’re thinking of!
I think the cap from Pedro and Ines would have worked somewhat better if they turned it around so the stick-uppy part was in front. Not a lot better, mind you, but it definitely would have been an improvement.
I love all these memes! Especially the “NSFW” ones. They make the gray January days a little brighter. :)
I’m begging you Kendra, please review “Love in Chains”! I’m a member of a FB group about this series and we have been regularly trashing it :-D. Because its plot is as shitty as the costumes. The review of one episode or even some fragments would be enough for us. We (our group has over 10.000 members) would be so grateful! Of course I would put a link to your site in a post about the costumes :-).
Oh god, how much would I be getting paid for this? ;)
But the laughs you get from it are absolutely worth it :-))))). Only viewing snippets to see the costumes would be enough, since I don’t want to be guilty of having caused you psychological damage, induced by the terrible script ;-).
my almost non-existent abs are sore from laughing :)
I know there were not memes, but your commented pics on Catherine the great’s costumes (with Julia Ormond) were so good I almost choked at work reading them!
Oh, Kendra, thank you so much; after a week of domestic turmoil, I really needed to giggle furiously. (Since I just could not get into “Mercy Street,” that one might be my favorite.)
I was 13 when Young Catherine came out and for WAY TOO MANY YEARS, I wanted a wedding dress like the one in this picture!!! Oh, dear!!!
Start saving those coffee filters! ;)
Does that guy with the codflap also have a camel toe?!