The Best Picket Signs Of The WGA Strike: ‘We’ll Spoil Succession’

The Writers Guild of America (WGA) is on strike, picketing for higher wages, an end to writer’s “mini-rooms” and pushing back against the looming threat of generative AI.

The WGA said that the decision was made after six weeks of negotiations with the major studios, which resulted in a “wholly insufficient” response to “the existential crisis writers are facing.”

SNL and late-night comedy shows have already been paused, while other popular shows might be impacted as the strike continues. Instead of writing scripts, talented writers are now putting their efforts into picket signs, and the results are as hilarious as one would expect.

Creating eye-catching signs has always been integral to picketing (one Twitter user even referenced the Disney animators strike of 1941), but in the age of social media, writing witty slogans is more important than ever, vital to maintaining public interest and support.

Hence, many of the signs referenced popular memes, such as “Surprised Pikachu” and Nicole Kidman’s viral AMC commercial.

“We’ll Spoil Succession”

Succession proved a very popular reference, which seems appropriate, considering that the writers of the show delight in satirizing narcissists, petty tyrants and fools who are paid a fortune to mismanage media empires.

One sign even referenced the “It just made sense dramaturgically” meme sparked by Jeremy Strong (Kendall Roy), who went viral after unironically using the word in an interview about the show.

One memorable sign threatened to spoil the final season of Succession if their demands are not met, and another described the hit series without writers as “just The Apprentice.”

Corporate Greed

Generally, corporate greed and bad decisions from the highest paid people in Hollywood inspired many of the signs, with many referencing the wealth inequality of the entertainment industry; comedian and writer Jenny Yang jokingly asked, “Give up just one yacht.”

Monumental failures, such as the cursed streaming service Quibi and the expensive settlement recently made by Fox News, also proved popular references.

David Zaslav

CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, David Zaslav, was a much-mocked target of the striking writers; one sign read “Ew, David! (Zaslav).”

Zaslav’s gargantuan salary (recently called out on CNN by Adam Conover), combined with his deeply unpopular decisions, such as changing the name of HBO Max to “Max,” and completely scrapping Batgirl for a tax write-off, made him a magnet for witty signage.

Jenna Ortega

Jenna Ortega, star of one of Netflix’s biggest hits, Wednesday, was referenced several times regarding the strike on Twitter, as the young star famously made headlines after claiming that she had rewritten some of the dialogue on Wednesday, to stay true to the character.

A picket sign from House Party writer Brandon Cohen read: “Without writers, Jenna Ortega will have nothing to punch up!”

The WGA has stated that the rise of streaming has negatively impacted writers, reducing residuals and allowing companies to leverage “the streaming transition to underpay writers, creating more precarious, lower-paid models for writers’ work.”

Generative AI

References to AI were abundant, as the technology proved a major point of contention in negotiations, and has generally been viewed with dismay and horror by artists across the creative industries, who fear that the fruits of their labor will be devalued, and digitally duplicated without their consent.

During negotiations, the WGA proposed strong regulations on AI, seeking to ban AI from being used as source material, to rewrite existing scripts, and to block the technology from being trained on writer’s work. The studios responded by offering an “annual meeting to discuss advances in technology.”

Abbott Elementary creator and star Quinta Brunson shared a photo on her Instastories holding a sign which read, “AI can’t write Tariq’s raps,” a reference to a character on her show.

Of course, Twitter has been vital to spreading the word of the strike, and this now-legendary post from a Twitter Blue subscriber went as viral as the most popular picket signs, and in its pearl-clutching sincerity, was arguably funnier than any of them.

No one knows how long the strike will last, but Hollywood’s writers are likely to unleash their creative urges elsewhere. No doubt, more witty signs are incoming, while Twitter and TikTok are soon to be flooded with funny content.