About
We Will Rebuild refers to a series of images of minor objects which have either fallen over or been knocked slightly out of place, sarcastically captioned with the slogan “we will rebuild” in reference to a typically insignificant natural disaster. It is similar to, and is often used interchangeably with, Never Forget; however, its perceived melodramatic tone means that it is almost always used ironically, while “Never Forget” is often used in a serious manner.
Origin
The earliest known instance of the meme in its current form was posted[1] to FunnyJunk on August 23rd, 2011, the same day that the incident which it was referencing – the 2011 Virginia earthquake[2]– occurred. The image macro (shown below) featured a picture of a plastic table and chair set with one chair tipped over, thus mocking the lackluster destructive power of the earthquake.
Spread
On July 20th, 2013, Redditor benj39 submitted a post titled “We will rebuild.”[3] to the /r/funny subreddit. The image was taken from a New Zealand news channel story about the 2013 Seddon earthquake[4] which caused four injuries and no deaths.
The news channel’s comical decision to display fallen bottles as an example of the “damage” done by the earthquake was well received by the subreddit, and the post amassed 2,473 points (95% upvoted) and 111 comments prior to being archived.
Notable Examples
Search Interest
External References
[1]FunnyJunk – We WILL Rebuild.
[2]Wikipedia – 2011 Virginia earthquake
[3]Reddit – We will rebuild.
[4]Wikipedia – 2013 Seddon earthquake