The Joseph Ducreux meme features a 1793 self-portrait of the French artist pointing toward the viewer with a smirk. It gained internet fame in 2009 when users began overlaying the image with modern pop culture and rap lyrics translated into unnecessarily formal, verbose, and archaic English. Known as 'Archaic Rap,' the humor stems from the juxtaposition of gritty, contemporary slang with the sophisticated aesthetic of the Enlightenment era. This template has remained a staple of internet culture for over a decade, celebrating the intellectual deconstruction of popular music through a high-society lens.