This study explores how Indonesian digital audiences reinterpret the Malaysian television series Bidaah through memes featuring its central character, Walid, a religious leader who embodies patriarchal authority by reframing abuse as a religious duty. While the series represents Walid through sacred symbolism and gender hierarchy, Indonesian netizens recontextualize these images into their own socio-religious discourse and reinterpret them through humorous, yet satirical memes. This research reveals how the humorous memetic reinterpretation of Walid by Indonesian audiences reflects broader cultural negotiations of religious authority, sensitivity, and satire in digital media. Through critical discourse analysis of five high-engagement Instagram memes (March–May 2025), the findings demonstrate how humorous memes redistribute symbolic power operating as a culturally specific form of resistance, enabling public critique of abuse of authority and gendered power relations in religion without direct transgression. This study underscores the significance of meme culture in facilitating cultural dialogue within social media representation.
Khotimah et al. (Wed,) studied this question.