Henry Kissinger's death brings to an end an long running meme

The death of Henry Kissinger has brought to an end a long-running social media meme that tracked whether he was still alive.

The controversial former US national security adviser and secretary of state died at the age of 100 on Wednesday 29 November.

Playing an infamous role in the Vietnam War, and blamed for the death of hundreds of thousands of civilians, Kissinger drew strong criticism from the likes of Anthony Bourdain for his heinous actions, after the late chef brutally wrote about him in his 2001 book.

As people have reacted to Kissinger’s death, one social media account that had a strong interest in the news was the “Is Henry Kissinger Dead Yet?” X/Twitter account.

The account was set up in December 2021 and tweeted every few days tracking whether the controversial political figure was still around.

According to the Washington Post, the account was created by an anonymous 26-year-old Peruvian law student.

He told the publication: “I think Americans in particular are very susceptible to this very stupid idea that is bad to celebrate the death of an evil person.”

In October 2022, a post from the account suggested the creator was growing slightly impatient waiting for him to die.

They wrote: “No and I didn’t think this account would be such a long term commitment.”

Upon the news that Kissinger has now passed away, a post from the account simply read, “YES”. It has been viewed 13 million times at the time of writing.

In the replies, people didn’t hold back on their feelings.

The creator of the account was true to their word, after telling the WaPo that when the day came they would tweet “Yes” and “enjoy the jubilation”.

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