Ted Cruz Comparisons To The Zodiac Killer Are Only Gaining Steam
The more attention Ted Cruz gets, the more unfortunate comparisons to the Zodiac Killer are made for the presidential candidate. Just how did Ted Cruz become a person the Internet loves to claim is one of the most famous, uncaught serial murderers in the United States? As Yahoo News points out, it seems this meme appeared out of nowhere back in 2013 with a single tweet. The tweet gave an “alert” that Cruz was speaking at CPAC, and his speech was going to be titled “This is the Zodiac speaking.”
Despite the rather odd accusation, the meme against Cruz didn’t take off until a year later. This happened thanks to another tweet which again claimed Cruz was, in fact, the infamous murderer.
“Ted Cruz’s Chilling Deathbed Confession: ‘I am the Zodiac Killer.’ “
The user ended the tweet with the hashtag #TedCruzIsTheZodiacKiller, and this hashtag seemed to allow the meme to take off. By the fall of 2015, Cruz was the definitive butt of a more rather odd joke that was fueled by people who were decidedly aligned against his deeply conservative agenda. One of the reasons it appears to have taken off the way it has is precisely because there are people who are willing to believe there may be a kernel of truth there somewhere.
One Twitter user told Yahoo News they understood it was logically impossible for Cruz to be the Zodiac Killer, but there was something so innately evil about the man, they also couldn’t rule it out. The Zodiac killer being one of those people who loved to taunt people who were trying to catch him seems to be something those who perpetuate the meme have locked onto. Along with postings claiming Ted Cruz is the Zodiac Killer, there are plenty of photos of the Cruz making a face which the posters feel is sinister. At times, the pictures show nothing more than Cruz smiling or winking.
Other users say it’s just entertaining to act as though there is an open secret about him that only people on the internet are privy to. No one appears to think Ted Cruz is a mass murderer, or even a single killer. Despite knowing better, Ted Cruz is having to see almost daily posts about how he might be the man known as Zodiac Killer the police have been looking for, for decades. GQ points out some people have taken the meme and run with it, claiming they are using the face swap technology that has become so popular to see just how close Ted Cruz comes to looking like Zodiac. The killer’s face is not used, but instead, these posters tend to just have faces of Cruz stacked against one another, hinting that Cruz looks exactly like the man who has never been found.
I did a face swap of Ted Cruz and the zodiac killer pic.twitter.com/ty0zs0w1Yp
— gordo (@internetcIout) April 13, 2016
As is the case with all these kinds of Internet memes, no one can be certain when it is going to die off. It would seem his presidential campaign will have to come to an end at the very least. So far, the comparisons have either not reached the ears of the presidential hopeful or he understands it is the price of being famous in the Internet age. After all, this is hardly the first time people have been making fun of the Texas Senator’s looks. It was just a few days ago a meme popped up that claimed to show Cruz making an appearance on the Maury show as a young woman trying to identify the father of her unborn child. It’s a safe bet Ted Cruz did not appear on that program in reality, much as it’s a safe bet he isn’t the Zodiac Killer, but both memes have begun great fun to the internet at large.
[Photo by David J. Phillip/AP Images]
