‘Conclave’ Is Becoming One of 2024’s Most Memed Movies

On its surface, “Conclave,” the Vatican-set film starring Ralph Fiennes, looks like one of the stuffiest of this year’s potential Oscar contenders.

Based on a novel by Robert Harris, it chronicles the behind-the-scenes dealings that unfold when the Roman Catholic Church needs to elect a new pope. The cast is mostly male — save for a showstopping turn from Isabella Rossellini — and, with some notable exceptions, largely white. It does not star any hot young things like Timothée Chalamet or Paul Mescal. Instead, it features a murderers’ row of middle-aged character actors. Purely based on subject matter, it seems like the kind of drama that might dominate the Academy Awards in the mid-2000s.

And yet it’s on its way to becoming one of the most memed movies of the year.

In the weeks since the film’s release, I have been shocked and delighted to find it all over my social media feeds. “Conclave” fever has hit the internet.

On X, “Conclave” has been mashed up with “RuPaul’s Drag Race” and “Real Housewives.” Devotees have made fan cams, or artfully edited videos, of the “Conclave” cardinals. One is set to the Charli XCX song “Sympathy Is a Knife” featuring Ariana Grande. The refrain “it’s a knife” is synced to the nasty looks the clergymen give one another. The X user Camille Argentar posted it and wrote, “so much drama in this #conclave and i loved every minute of it.”

Another fan cam focuses on Ralph Fiennes’s Cardinal Lawrence and the song “Diva” by Beyoncé, implying that Lawrence is the diva here. The TikTok account @catholic.memes25 has made multiple “Conclave” videos, including one using “We Both Reached for the Gun” from the musical “Chicago.”