A meme is born as Brangelina in Gozo gets the photoshop treatment

While local online satire enjoyed something of a boom over the last few years thanks to the rise of social media, entities like Satiristan and Malta Dizastru Totali tended to be skewed towards sometimes heavy-handed brand of satire which privileged poking fun at politics above all.

But the return of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie to our shores has given way to a refreshingly lightweight satirical Facebook page, ‘Brangelina in Gozo’, whose 4,800 Likes – and counting – may be proof that it’s not just politics that tickles the fancy of the Maltese web surfer/procrastinator.

The concept of the page is as simple as it is ripe with potential: transpose the celebrity couple’s photos onto Maltese and Gozitan landmarks.

Possibly inspired by a (clearly fake) photo of Angelina Jolie eating pastizzi on the Gozo ferry that made the rounds in mid-August, the page has yielded some hilarious juxtapositions.

Much ‘Liked’ and shared doctored photos included ones of the couple leaving LIDL with kids in tow; posing with Imperium Ewropa leader Norman Lowell (extra sting: Jolie is Special Envoy to the UN High Commission); an affectionate shot of Jolie – with baby in arm – being serenaded to by guitar-toting Lou Bondi; Pitt swigging some Cisk in front of Havana…

Initially posting a few sporadic gems after it was founded on 11 September, the page has since been posting submissions from external ‘volunteers’ with far greater frequency.

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are set to remain in Gozo until November, as they wrap the Jolie-directed romantic drama By the Sea.

Whether the film will be any good remains to be seen, of course. But what’s certain is that we got a couple of laughs from the couple’s cinematic sojourn to our shores, if nothing else.