From sacred to stan culture: the Vatican conclave is now meme canon

Day one of the 2025 papal conclave may be over, but the memes—and the strange flattening of reality and fiction—are only intensifying. Some Catholic cardinals reportedly watched Conclave, the Edward Berger 2024 film, to prepare for the actual event. And thanks to Pope Crave, a parody fan account on X originally dedicated to the film, social media has been pulled into the process in ways no one could have predicted.

The account has evolved from inside jokes about the film to delivering near-journalistic coverage from the streets of Rome. Armed with a handmade “press pass,” Pope Crave has sent correspondents to live-report from the Vatican, posted paparazzi-style cardinal snaps (“yassified to maintain anonymity“), and even fact-checked Politico when the publication erroneously called Ralph Fiennes’ character a “camerlengo” (Politico has since issued a correction).

While 133 cardinals sequestered inside the Vatican on Wednesday to begin round one of voting for the new pope, Pope Crave, and the rest of social media, went insane with memes. Some began stanning their favorites like they were members of a boy band.

“They’re stanning church cardinals like kpop group members now, who the f—k is zuppi” @ghoulhag wrote in a quote-reply of a video of the cardinals. (Matteo Zuppi, aka “Don Matteo,” is the archbishop of Bologna and considered a more progressive pick.)

The Vatican chimney, the Sistine seagull, and the smoke

As millions tuned into the livestream of the Sistine Chapel chimney, all eyes were on a now-iconic seagull perched nearby. Between the “Sistine seagull,” chimney-cam reaction videos, and edits of the black smoke, the conclave fully entered legendary internet meme territory.

But…why is the internet so obsessed with the papal conclave?

Part of the appeal is the pageantry and secrecy of it all. Another part of it is, of course, the film. But more relevant is the feeling of being in on the joke, of building community and lore in real-time. Of watching something ancient and sacred get remixed through today’s language of currency: memes. We arguably haven’t had a day this fun on the site since Elon Musk took over in 2022. “Regular” people were drawn into the process through a movie, and a social media fan account built a playful (but sincere) bridge to the event.

Anyway, here are some more memes about it:

The conclave may be sacred, but the internet made it social. God bless Pope Crave.

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