10 Nicolas Cage memes that broke the internet: A field guide

Nicolas Cage is an Oscar-winning actor, a blockbuster headliner, and one of the most distinctive and idiosyncratic stars in Hollywood history. His out-there energy has invigorated films as varied as Vampire’s Kiss, The Rock, Leaving Las Vegas, Face-Off, Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, and Ghost Rider, all of which feature unique wild-man performances that could have been delivered by no one else. Those turns have also, invariably, made Cage a favorite of the online meme-making crowd, who’ve used images and clips of him — all crazy-eyed expressions, flamboyant gesturing and screaming lunacy — to create some of the internet’s funniest running jokes.

They’ll have plenty of new fodder for their digital goof-offery when his latest, Mom and Dad — in which he plays a psycho father compelled, like the rest of the world’s parents, to kill his kids — arrives in theaters Friday. It’s another in a long line of pitch-perfectly gonzo performances. Moreover, it’s one fit for screengrabs and GIFs, which is why to celebrate its arrival, we’ve compiled this, a rundown of the 10 best Nicolas Cage memes.

Nicolas Cage as Everyone

What’s better than seeing Nic Cage starring in a movie? Nic Cage starring in everything, as everyone. As its title makes clear, this meme involves replacing other famous faces with Cage’s via Photoshop — a practice that’s so widespread, it has given birth to its own blog, where you can spend hours getting lost in images as loopy as the below few.

You Don’t Say?

Cage’s performance in Vampire’s Kiss is something to behold, and one scene in particular is so bonkers that it led to the “You Don’t Say” meme, which is a handy means of mocking something head-smackingly obvious. (And it also comes in a black-and-white illustrated version, too!)

Cage Rampage

There’s just no rational explanation for this, except to say that one brilliant internet mind saw fit to turn Cage (circa Face-Off) into a city-destroying monster trying to take down fighter planes with eye lasers, all set to shredding heavy metal guitar. In its own weirdo way, it’s perfect.

Nicolas Cage Is a Vampire

In September 2011, Jack Mord listed for auction on eBay a 1864 photo of Confederate inmate Lieutenant G.B. Smith — who, it turns out, looks strikingly like Nic Cage. Mord claimed that the snapshot was proof that Cage was, in fact, an undead vampire, thus begetting one of the strangest memes in internet history. Cage himself denied the claim in February 2012 on The Late Show With David Letterman (stating, somewhat convincingly, “You can’t take pictures of vampires… Now look, I don’t drink blood and the last time I looked in the mirror I had a reflection”). Still, the image does speak for itself…

Nicolas Cage in Kazakhstan

One of 2017’s funniest memes came from this recent photo of Cage in Kazakhstan standing beside the country’s first lady while attending the 13th Eurasia International Film Festival. Between the attire, the pose, the look, it practically demanded to give birth to a Photoshopping spree.

Con Air

The long-flowing locks blowing in the breeze, the scruffy beard — Cage’s look in 1997’s Simon West-directed blockbuster is one for the ages. Naturally, it has spawned its own series of memes, most of them fixated on his blissful closed-eyes expression (seen below), which is a perfect way of conveying at-ease contentment.

National Treasure

In 2004, Nicolas Cage stole the Declaration of Independence in National Treasure. And ever since, his signature heist has functioned as a vehicle for online ridiculousness, most of it built around the sheer inanity of such an endeavor.

The Wicker Man: ‘Not the Bees’ and ‘How’d It Get Burned’

It’s been 12 years since Cage starred in Neil LaBute’s misbegotten remake of the 1973 cult classic, which means that for the past 12 years, the internet has been having a field day with the star’s two signature moments — both of which are beloved for epitomizing the actor’s dialed-to-11 intensity (and insanity).

Nicolas Cage Wants Cake

In 2000’s The Family Man, Nicolas Cage comes home to find wife Téa Leoni eating the piece of cake he’d been saving for himself. For whatever inspired reason, that encounter prompted Newgrounds member Harry Partridge to create the below animated video — set to a remix soundtrack featuring movie-dialogue snippets — which, in turn, led to many, many more.

Nicolas Cage Losing His S**t

As the above memes imply, Cage is not renowned for his calm, cool, collected demeanor. Predictably, then, the internet adores montages of the actor’s freakouts, all of which were famously compiled by the below video — whose title says it all.

Mom and Dad opens in limited release on Friday.

Read more from Yahoo Entertainment:

• ‘Mom and Dad’ trailer offers some epic Nicolas Cage rage (exclusive)

• Nicolas Cage insists his ‘Superman Lives’ ‘would have been beautiful’

• The extreme faces of Nicolas Cage