Gays of Hormuz
The gays of Hormuz was a social media meme that went viral during the 2026 Iran war. It was a wordplay based on the Straits of Hormuz, the waterway between Oman and Iran, that got extensive media coverage, The wordplay was based on the phonetic pan of the word "Strait" (meaning narrow) is misheard as "straight" (heterosexual), leading to the joke about the gays of Hormuz.
Origin
The phrase was used on a street interview recorded at a public No Kings protests in the United States. In the video that went viral worldwide, the interviewer used the phrase "gays of Hormuz" in a satirical question, that some interviewees took literally, contributing to the video's viral spread across social media.
Spread and popularity
Following the video's viral success, the phrase became a meme on platforms like Tiktok, X (formerly Twitter), and Reddit. Users made their own variation of the meme in forms like:
- Mock news headlines
- Edited maps and geography memes
- Satirical commentary on geopolitics
- Short form video skits
Media coverage
The meme's success had gotten the attention of news outlets, reporting about the meme as part of internet culture. Most of the news coverage about the viral meme, focused on public reaction, how misinformation is spread worldwide, or gaps in people's knowledge of geography, rather than focusing on the joke itself.
See also
- Internet meme
- Wordplay
- Straits of Hormuz
External links
- Sky news Australia report