American Girl Doll Jokes Are All the Rage

Since 1986, American Girl dolls like Molly McIntire, recognizable by her braids and round glasses, and Josefina Montoya, dressed in a long red-and-blue skirt and moccasins, have transported children who played with them to Illinois during World War II or to what is now New Mexico, during the early 19th century.

Books like “Samantha Helps a Friend” and “Felicity’s Surprise” have functioned as windows onto history for young readers who eagerly followed their favorite character’s adventures.

Now, a meme has sprung up on social media in which people cheekily suggest expanding the historical American Girl doll universe to include other historical dramas, many of them veering into the absurd.

They begin with the phrase “We need an American Girl doll who …” Some fill in the second part with major events covered by American textbooks, like the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Others are more obscure: One meme imagines an American Girl doll who survived the dancing plague of 1518.