Michelle Yeoh Grants Wicked: For Good a Great Meme
Finally, the Wicked: For Good press tour has given the internet a delicious meme — and it didn’t come from the minds of Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo. Oscar winner Michelle Yeoh, who plays the evil Madame Morrible in both Wicked films, has a concise way of explaining how her character is the actual villain in Oz: “‘MM,’ flip it around? ‘Wicked Witch!’” In Yeoh’s interviews, she says the phrase over and over, always with the exact same intonation: on the red carpet, on Graham Norton, on morning shows, and on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. Every time she says it (and she has said it so many times), Yeoh seems genuinely thrilled that when you flip “MM” around, you get “Wicked Wi-itch”! It’s her own version of Lady Gaga repeatedly saying “There could be 100 people in the room and 99 don’t believe in you, and you just need one to believe in you” during her A Star Is Born press tour. Perhaps even more inspiring.
The meme is delighting the masses on the internet, who repeat the phrase, change the meaning of “MM,” and post edits of Yeoh uttering the sacred mantra. But despite this being the internet, there’s no wickedness being thrust around — everyone’s taking the chance to get in on a memeless rollout. The first Wicked press tour held space for “holding space for the lyrics of ‘Defying Gravity.’” This time, there’s pretty much just that GIF of Erivo learning that a French fan found her lost hat. Erivo and Grande didn’t give interviews at the New York premiere, and since they’re not doing junket interviews, the internet has been largely deprived of their wacky ways. So “Thank Goodness” Yeoh is here to save the day and provide a legitimately quotable phrase. “Wacky ways?” Flip it around: Madame Morrible.
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