Chicago celebrates hometown pope with memes, Malört, deep dish jokes
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Robert Prevost has been elected the first American pope in history, and Chicago is here for it.
The big picture: When word came of Pope Leo XIV's Chicago roots, witty local comments flooded social media timelines, even from our elected leaders.
- "Everything dope, including the Pope, comes from Chicago," Mayor Brandon Johnson posted.
The vibe: Jokesters quickly pointed to Chicago's famous "dems and dos" speech pattern, calling the new pope "Da Pope" and sharing memes of the "Superfans" sketch from "Saturday Night Live."
Zoom in: Chicago, a historically Catholic city, didn't stop with references to Coach Ditka, George Wendt and Chris Farley. Here are some of the best early reactions:
- "Deep dish eucharist," Eion Higgins posted on Bluesky.
- "Finally Rome will have good pizza," Rory Cooper shared.
- "Cannot wait for holy water & wine to be replaced by Malort & Old Style," Shane Riordan mused. Our Axios colleague Alex Fitzpatrick thought along similar lines: "When does he start turning water into malort?"
- "Previously on Chicago Pope…" comedian Sandy Marshall joked, in reference to Dick Wolf's Chicago procedural television dramas.
- "Chicago Pope about to walk out to this," Kara Fagan posted with the intro video and song for the Chicago Bulls.
- "The new pope is a @Cubs fan which means he ironically hates the Cardinals," broadcaster Caitlin Hendrix posted.
- "The new Pope says he's from Chicago but he's *actually* from Naperville," broadcaster Mike Golic Jr. joked.
- "Would be great if he can do something about the construction on the Kennedy," Ben Wittenstein joked.
- "Pope Leo XIV is the first pope to know exactly what Dave Matthews did on Aug. 8, 2004," Mike Beauvais posted, cleverly referencing when Matthews' bus dumped waste onto a boat full of tourists on the Chicago River.
And finally, from our beloved @ChiPartyAunt account:
- "Payton, Jordan, Oprah, Ditka, Royko and now…God."
The bottom line: As the world learns about the new Chicago-born pope, they may also learn about Chicago's humor.