When a meme becomes big enough, it eventually escapes the internet and enters popular culture.
That’s exactly what happened with the Melodi meme, the viral nickname created by social media users for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. What started as a playful internet joke has now inspired one of the most unexpected creator collaborations of the year.
Indian YouTuber CarryMinati and global content creator MrBeast recently teamed up to recreate the viral moment, and fans are calling it the “crossover of the decade.” The video, shared by CarryMinati on Instagram, quickly racked up millions of views as viewers reacted to seeing the world’s biggest YouTuber participate in a meme born on Indian social media.
The Meme Recreation That Took Over Social Media
In the short clip, CarryMinati recreates the now-iconic selfie-video format associated with the Melodi meme, while MrBeast joins in with exaggerated smiles and expressions that mirror the original viral moment.
Adding to the humour, CarryMinati captioned the post: “Bahar ke doston ko gift dete rehna chahiye,” a tongue-in-cheek reference to the internet’s ongoing obsession with the Melodi trend. The clip quickly attracted reactions from fans who were stunned to see MrBeast fully embrace an Indian meme culture reference.
For many users, the collaboration represented a rare meeting of two vastly different creator ecosystems, India’s biggest independent YouTuber and the most-followed creator on YouTube.
How the Melodi Meme Started
The meme traces its roots to the widely discussed friendship between PM Narendra Modi and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
The term “Melodi” emerged as a blend of their surnames and first gained traction online following their interactions at international summits. The joke resurfaced in a major way recently when PM Modi gifted Meloni a packet of Melody toffees during his visit to Italy. In a video shared by Meloni, she thanked the Prime Minister for the gift while holding up the candy packet, prompting social media users to declare that the “Melodi” meme had become reality.
The clip quickly went viral, generating millions of views and sparking a fresh wave of memes, reactions and brand-led moment marketing campaigns. Brands including Blinkit and Air India even joined the conversation with their own takes on the trend.
With CarryMinati and MrBeast now putting their own spin on Melodi, the meme has crossed yet another milestone from a viral joke to a globally recognised internet moment.
