As it continues into its second month, the Iran war has moved from the Middle East to social media platforms, where memes, pop‑culture clips and video game visuals are influencing how the conflict is perceived.
From SpongeBob SquarePants jokes to video‑game mashups, U.S. government accounts and pro‑Iranian voices are trading viral posts that mock opponents, rally supporters and shape public opinion.
Psychologists say the trend, sometimes called “memetic warfare,” can make military action feel controlled, playful or even heroic while softening its real‑world consequences.
“These memes normalize a hypermasculine, militarized response and encourage people to automatically accept policies that would look very different in a sober news briefing,” media psychologist and Director of the Media Psychology Center Pamela Rutledge told USA TODAY.
Trump administration, Iranian embassies trade war memes online
The White House’s official social media pages frequently feature animated content, pop culture references, sports clips and iconic American imagery, including bald eagles and the U.S. flag. The posts ramped up with the war’s start, becoming more patriotic and pointed.
Some posts use familiar songs like Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Free Bird,” with dramatic beat drops timed to clips of explosions. Others adapt popular video games, including remakes of Nintendo’s Wii Sports, where scenes like a golf swing or an arrow shot end with footage of explosions.
Some of those posts have earned hundreds of thousands of views and likes, with many accompanied by captions about continuing objectives or American strength.
While Iran’s central government accounts have not posted memes, some Iranian embassies and pro‑Iranian social media accounts have responded with their own content criticizing the U.S. government.
Posts from Iranian embassies in Lebanon, Afghanistan and South Africa include cartoons depicting President Donald Trump lighting himself on fire or standing beside a damaged Air Force One.
Pro‑Iranian accounts have also created memes that counter U.S. messaging. One X account has drawn attention for animated, AI‑generated videos depicting Trump as a LEGO‑style character, appearing stressed or screaming as Iran attacks U.S. boats.
For the United States, the videos help create narratives that paint the war as controlled and winnable while making it look like play, Media Psychology Center’s Rutledge said.
“By flooding feeds with sizzle reels of gaming clips, superhero memes, and dominance jokes, these campaigns prime people, especially young men, to see war through a lens of inevitable, even desirable, heroic excitement,” Rutledge said. “That makes policies feel right without anyone ever seeing the boots-on-the-ground reality.”
Why war memes work: Familiar characters soften the impact
While there is a physical battle underway, Rutledge said the memes also signal a battle of perception online by shaping who is cast as the hero and who is framed as the enemy.
“A good meme triggers emotion: humor, outrage, moral judgment or group affiliation,” Rutledge said. “Humor lowers defenses, suspends critical analysis and enhances social bonding. Heroic and dominance cues make the message feel morally right. That’s a powerful mix if you’re trying to sell a war to an anxious, overloaded audience.”
The White House’s posts rely on what Rutledge calls “cultural containers” or shared references audiences already understand and feel connected to, including SpongeBob SquarePants, Wii Sports, Pixar films, Call of Duty and Marvel characters.
Linking familiar symbols to war imagery can overpower new information, Rutledge said, “sanitizing the message with nostalgia while trivializing violence and human life.”
While humor has long been used to critique and cope with crises, the impact changes when the messaging comes from a government, said Arienne Ferchaud, an associate professor at Florida State University.
“If people are naturally coming to these memes … it’s telling you something about the nature of society, right? It’s telling you something about the way people are feeling about it,” Ferchaud told USA TODAY. “When it’s coming from the government, though, you don’t get that aspect of kind of societal commentary because it’s coming from people in power.”
Beyond that, presenting war updates in a joking, meme‑driven format can minimize the perceived horror of military action and make it more acceptable to viewers, she added.
“The idea is to craft a certain message and a certain feeling. We don’t want people to think, ‘This is a very serious issue where people are dying and it’s unjust,'” Ferchaud said. “We don’t want people to think that if we want to go over there and fight. It is thoughtful and intentional.”
Kate Perez covers national trends and breaking news for USA TODAY. You can reach her at kperez@usatodayco.com or on X @katecperez_.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: US government accounts and pro‑Iranian voices wage ‘memetic warfare’
Reporting by Kate Perez and Carlie Procell, USA TODAY / USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect