I Will Survive… The Memes!

It’s rare you get to see a meme grow from the very start.  On Wednesday, Gavia Baker-Whitelaw (@Hello_Tailor), a writer at The Daily Dot, tweeted that they’d just discovered Borba’s comic “I Will Survive”.  Since then, that tweet has gained over 6,000 likes and over 2,500 retweets.  Other online news organizations like The AV Club have picked up on the story.

Then both the Twitter and Tumblr communities at large got their hands on it, and it has escalated to the point of being officially recognized by Know Your Meme.  Even the youtube channel Behind The Meme has covered it.  And Dorkly.  More and more people keep reporting on this.

As I pointed out in our initial post featuring I Will Survive, this is undoubtedly the most controversial comic to have ever come out of the fandom, so for it to suddenly gain the attention of the internet at large has been… well, things have been mixed.  On the one hand, it’s great that so many people are discovering that there even is a sizable and dedicated Zootopia fandom that’s separate from general Furry culture.  We welcome those people and invite them to take a look at some of the other magnificent things we have created.  In fact, here are a few of my personal favorites:

  • Music: When Can I Try Everything Again? – a Mashup of “Try Everything” and “When Can I See You Again” from Wreck-it-Ralph.  It works WAY too well, and set the stage for Mashin’ Jams slow mixing of Try Everything with pretty much every pop song ever.  And they all work amazingly.  Alternatively, check out Dance Every Feeling!
  • Comics: Sunderance – A HUGE Alternate-Universe take on Zootopia set in a version of the city where Foxes are actually dominant, rather than being the underdogs we see in the movie.  It’s dark, gritty, and packed full of action and political intrigue.  This is one of many examples where Artists and Authors come together to make a truly masterful comic.
  • Fanfics: Fallout Zootopia – a crossover that makes no sense on the surface, and uses almost exclusively original characters, but blends the two franchises together beautifully until it becomes one of the greatest stories that the fandom has produced.  Also comes in audiobook form, which is higher quality than most things I’ve heard from Audible.
  • News: Exclusive Interview with Byron Howard – The title says it all.  Byron Howard, the Director of Zootopia, gave us an exclusive interview to celebrate the one-year anniversary of ZNN.  It’s one of the coolest things that we’ve ever featured, in my opinion.
And we have a LOT more where that came from!
On the downside, due to the controversial nature of the comic, its sudden meme status has sparked some rather heated discussions.  I’m glad to say that for the most part people have kept it civil, but there are those who have taken to attacking Borba directly for his work.  That’s not cool.  Give criticism of the comic all you like, but don’t attack the artist over it.  Please keep things constructive.  And please don’t judge the zootopia fandom as a whole by a single work.  We have so much more to offer than that.
ZNN does not endorse Borba’s views on abortion or any other topic that was brought up in I Will Survive (we are neutral on all topics of a controversial or political nature) but we do support artists who take risks.  Borba took a big risk with the subject matter of IWS, and I feel that deserves some recognition in general- especially considering the massive backlash against it by fans and non-fans of Zootopia alike.  Did his risk pay off?  That’s ultimately for Borba to decide.  The Zootopia Fandom has already had these discussions months ago when the comic first released, so this is old news to us.
In the meantime, we live in a reality where I Will Survive has become a meme.  And as is the case with all memes, some people have shown a real aptitude for creative and entertaining transformations of the original.  Here at ZNN we focus on the good, so check after the break for some of the better edits we’ve seen the past few days.

Trix are for Kids: by boardofsomthing
You’re Already Dead: by Monkeywiki
Memes of December 2017: by Tateratots
One Punch: by Satanels-pride

Wrong Door: by DankDisneyTVMemes
Skyrim Will Survive: by HelixtheDNAman 
Mesothelioma by Rhapsody-under-pressure
The Room: by paulyrhyhmics
Kylo Ren-ard: By CynicalFox624
And last, but certainly not least…
The Arby’s Edit: by D1rtypaws

20 Comments

  1. wow, you guys really have sunk to a whole new low….this is INSULTING and DEMEANING to Borba, whom you guys have featured before, and now you're going to parade around this shit, of people making fun of his work all for a free ride for some more hits??? that is fucking sad. you guys claim to post new artists and writers, but more often than not, you're riding on the coattails of already well known and famous artists and writers, just to boost your own numbers. and now you're going to post shit that is tearing down one of the fandom's artists? i've lost a LOT of respect, well, any that i did have. wow guys. keep stroking your egos some more, or at least the ones who thought THIS was a good idea.

    • Okay, uh…. do you understand kind of site ZNN is? ZNN is a fan-news site. Now, I'm not going to debate the complaint that they post famous artists and writers as I'm not personally that active in the fandom at the moment (although I feel a healthy mix between "popular" and "unknown" is probably best). I want to tackle your claim that ZNN is intentionally demeaning Borba for hits:

      Like it or not, THIS IS NEWS. The team at ZNN is doing their job by reporting it. They were very clear in this post that they aren't taking sides, and they don't support attacking the artist. But, like it or not, this is a big deal. The fandom is getting thrown into a far more public light. (It is rather unfortunate that the cause is due to one of the most controversial things to come from said fandom, in my opinion.) ZNN wouldn't be a news site if they didn't report the news. You are claiming they are taking a side when, in fact, you are asking them to take a side by NOT reporting the news and denying this is a thing.

      On a side note: I'm finding these memes hilarious. That Arby's one was pure gold!

    • on the same note, sharing the memes themselves isn't needed, and they're even posting who made what ones. this is glorifying it. they could talk about it without naming the people who are doing it. because that will only encourage more people to do it so they can get recognized. it's the same shit with REAL news sites reporting killers and telling people who the killers are, giving them their 15 minutes of fame, and then more and more people will want it.

      none of these memss or edits are funny. it's just nonsensical crap. the arby's one especially.

      these people don't really post news, or anything that someone couldn't find by looking it up themselves.

      as far as i'm concerned, considering the place they THINK they hold in the fandom, you think they'd be taking more of an active role to try and quell this shit, but no. says a lot about the people who decided posting this and naming the people doing this crap.

    • We discussed it with Borba beforehand. He's taking it all rather well, and he even shared a few of these with us in the first place. The purpose of this article is to welcome the new people who are just discovering the fandom, to ask people to be civil in their discussion, and to report on the meme.

    • ZNN has to report the creators of the art so as to comply with their rules about plagiarism and copyrighting etc. That includes those who create parodies of other comics, because though the art is borrowed, the content is another author's. Don't tell them not to because doing so breaks their long-standing (for good reason) rules.
      I don't find the memes funny at all either (mostly because I also found the comic disappointing for various reasons and because the attention that we're now getting through these is rather negative -I've had like 150 notifications from the original comic feature because people are going up in arms over it all over again, worse than in the original debut) but that's not the point at all. The ZNN site is here to report news and features that, just like any other real news site, yes you could look up on your own but it's far more convenient to go to one place for all the relevant information. You don't like that format, you must not like any news setting whatsoever because it's the same thing. And once again you're demanding they take a side by saying they should have some serious active hand in directing public opinion about an event that's occurred; stop it. The individual people who work the site may well be trying to do something, but as a neutral site here ZNN itself should not get involved. Report, yes, and let us draw our own conclusions like any good news site, but not bias one way or another. It might give the negative attention we don't want them to have, but boo hoo, that's journalism's job: to make things known.

    • As TheWaywardKid said, "THIS IS NEWS". Like it or not, if the rest of the internet is talking about this, for the ZNN to stick its head in the sand and ignore the topic would be absurd. (By the way, isn't there a saying, "Any publicity is good publicity"?) Many people are emotional about the subject matter of this story, clouding their objectivity regarding the quality of the work. There will always be entities on the internet intent on demeaning and ridiculing others. It is not a new phenomenon, and not unique to this situation. In this case it touches home because of our love of these characters, and our engagement in this fandom. The majority of the world does not share this adoration of Zootopia, at least not to the same degree we who visit ZNN regularly do. Keep in mind that to most people, the fan-made stories may seem odd or downright creepy. Ignorance of the matter won't lessen it's impact.

      From the smattering of comments I've read on other parts of the world wide web, people generally acknowledge Borba's graphical talent, regardless of what they think of the subject matter and writing. Wider exposure can lead to good things, despite the detractors.

      "And the more we try to understand one another, the more exceptional each of us will be. But we have to try." –Judy Hopps

    • Oh… OH! OH!!!! Do you hear that!?

      /distant-noise-getting-closer "aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa"

      It's… it's!!! IT'S THE WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHmbulance!

    • Seriously though. This is just a bit of fun. People will do what people will do. Some of them might have even really appreciated the original. The thing about the internet though is that it's full of memes and jokes. For you to go full on Comic-Nazi about it is not needed.

  2. It's so nice for Zootopia to finally be noticed again, after over a year of being dominated by Moana. Even if it's in a controversial web comic where I wish Judy would just keep the baby even though she can't because of career reasons.

  3. Well, at least the Zootopia fandom as a whole is getting a foothold in the big wide world. We've lost so much notoriety over time, so I'd say that overall, this is good. Very good. It's just unfortunate that the catalyst had to be one of the most overrated and chaotically-loaded pieces of content in the fandom.

  4. I said back in June that this comic was poorly written albeit well drawn, and as much as I lament the fact that some now think this fandom is hardline conservative because of this ham fisted attempt at drama, the memes are utterly hilarious and help me to make light of the worst popular fan story yet released.

    I don't even care if it's pro life or not, as Borba claims it isn't. It's still an awfully written drama and a horrible out of character portrayal of both of the film's leads.

    So meme away. Hopefully the hilarity will continue to ensue.

  5. Wow, so this is thing huh? Well, i find it really ironic that from the comic about abortion (lets just forget that the characters or almost out of their roles, i have seen/read worse Zootopia material), the meme was born.

    Some things just cant be predicted right? Though i will never forget the "finnicks gradma kush" in the another (really good, really awesome) story.

    so ehm… ZOOTOPIA LIVES!

  6. Unfortunately, Many people on the internet are ignorant, close-minded people who only see things at face-value and leave at that. They never look at the other sides of things, cuz it's too hard for them. They'd rather just hate on it and move on. But I'm not one of those people. For example, I don't think fandoms are all bad like these people say it is, I see all the good things these groups do and appreciate it.

  7. First and foremost, the most important thing is that Borba is ok, it is not easy to take that kind od backlash or opinions on the work you do, and to straight to the point, all of this, that’s what art do, do all of you really thing that we only can work with happy feelings and cute things, don’t get me wrong I’m glad that they exist but not because of some opinions we are not going to dive in other feelings of the emotional spectrum, That’s the point of the art, That’s the idea, that it moves you, to take a point of view and show it, it escalates this comic to a point that is now a form of artistic expression just because it got such a reaction that now there are two sides fighting. That validates it. I am pro choice, but that doesn’t matter, because I don’t pour my opinion on it, and unlike… well all the other people here I don’t make it to fit my view, it is what he say it is, but since you can’t accept it you meme it, you mold it, you either make a joke, or make an example of it or you pervert it. (It is ok to have a good laugh, but never at the expenses of attacking others, that’s just saying that you don’t have empathy)

    In the end, the fandom that saw it born, instead of take part of all of this meme war and… Really, really absurd stands (like, criticize the page that posts the news of the post of a trend? Really, what’s Grong with you?) , need to understand that we are here to support and watch for each other. We need to be the adults on this one se more and more people continue to make good art.

    This will wash out and in the end; we need to still stand proud. So we will remain as a fandom worthy for liberties and a voice worth of listening.

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