Silent Night Deadly Night 2's Garbage Day Meme Explained (& How It Went Viral)
Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2 is by all measures a terrible movie, but it managed to spawn the hilarious and long-lasting "Garbage Day!" meme. While horror set on Christmas is by no means a rarity, the Silent Night, Deadly Night franchise is definitely one of the oddest and most puzzling in the genre. Released in 1984, the first Silent Night, Deadly Night is far from a good film, sporting an obviously low budget, poor acting, mostly detestable characters, and an overall sense of pervading sleaze.
In fact, Silent Night, Deadly Night's initial success was almost entirely due to protests surrounding its marketing campaign, which opponents argued depicted a murderous Santa Claus, although anyone who's actually seen the movie knows it's just a crazed Billy in a Santa suit. While that uproar sidelined its original theatrical prospects, Silent Night, Deadly Night quickly became a hot item via theatrical re-releases, as well as on the early home video market. This led to one theatrical sequel, three direct to video sequels, and a remake, almost all of which have little connection to any of the others.
That's actually not the case for Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2, which recycles footage from its predecessor extensively, in the form of flashbacks. The sequel itself is fun for those who like really bad movies, but its most lasting contribution to pop culture as a whole is the "Garbage Day!" meme.
The source of the "Garbage Day!" meme is a scene that takes place not long after Ricky (Eric Freeman), the brother of Billy from the first movie, snaps, kills his girlfriend's ex, then her, then a cop. He steals the cop's gun and goes on a shooting spree, beginning with a hapless man just trying to take out the trash. Before killing the man, Ricky bizarrely shouts "Garbage Day!," in one of the strangest, most over the top line readings ever committed to film. It's pretty much impossible not to laugh at.
As for the scene becoming a meme, it was first uploaded to YouTube on June 7, 2006, by a user named Jamie Holler. The following week, a higher quality version was uploaded by a user named BrunoMe, which remains up and watchable today, over 14 years later. That upload has amassed over 8.7 million views, and will presumably continue to add more to that tally as the years go on. Over 12,000 comments have been left on the video, and 94,000 have liked or disliked it. The clip itself is also often used on other social media platforms.
The "Garbage Day!" meme first began to spread in late 2007, had inspired an Urban Dictionary entry by early 2008, and the clip just went further and further viral from there, appearing on different widely read blogs and forums. Multiple parodies of the scene have also been posted to YouTube, some of which recreate it, while others manipulate the original footage. The meme looks unlikely to go away anytime soon, but one wonders how many who've seen it have actually been compelled to watch Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2.