Panic! At The Disco frontman Brendon Urie is being blamed for all the world’s problems by Twitter users in a bizarre viral trend.
The musician faces (obviously false) accusations of splitting up One Direction, the coronavirus pandemic, the fall of the Roman Empire, the closure of Toys R Us, forcing Taco Bell to stop serving cheesy fiesta potatoes and more.
A number of the memes come with photoshopped images, seeing Urie attacking polar bears with a pistol, taking up space on the door at the end of Titanic, and looming ominousy in the background during The Beatles‘ final days.
brendon urie is making the polar bears go extinct pic.twitter.com/739mFaQA4S
— emmy (@belIatrix) January 6, 2021
brendon urie you're not seeing heaven pic.twitter.com/rLyyNhsMMj
— nini. (@anyasknightley) January 6, 2021
brendon urie is responsible for the fall of the jedi order pic.twitter.com/lQJGTeNlXN
— natalia was s worded | RT? (@padmeshomo) January 6, 2021
Brendon urie broke up the Beatles pic.twitter.com/xB97goadzo
— abe | BOWIE DAY (@lennonsquish) January 6, 2021
brendon urie is the reason there was no room on the door for jack pic.twitter.com/DcCKpQXXR2
— alice (@bwsftcapaldi) January 6, 2021
The bizarre trend seems to have its origins in a tweet by Twitter user @razziplier, who said on Tuesday (January 5) “Normalise blaming Brendon Urie for things he didn’t do”.
cw brendon urie
normalize blaming brendon urie for things he didn’t do
— razz/damien ? (@razziplier) January 5, 2021
The musician has yet to respond to the trend, having been silent on Twitter since an anti-Trump rant last June.
Those tweets came following the outgoing President’s use of Panic! At The Disco’s track ‘High Hopes’ during a rally for his 2020 re-election campaign.
“Dear Trump Campaign,” he wrote. “Fuck you. You’re not invited. Stop playing my song. No thanks, Brendon Urie, Panic! At The Disco & company.”
Urie has long been vocal about his dislike of Donald Trump. In an interview with NME in 2018, he heavily criticised the president, calling him a “toxic orange”.
“Why couldn’t you have just stayed a menial celebrity?” Urie said. “We love laughing at you, but not when you’re just breaking our country down, dude.”