Like Obama’s logo, which supporters can download to create their very own avatar, Fairey’s posters have taken on a life of their own, albeit a bit more organically. People are using the design to create all kinds of political and sometimes intentionally illogical images and messages, from the Pope to Bob Hope to McCain as a Dope to Sarah Palin as Nope and, um, to the Soup Nazi from Seinfeld. (Oddly, there is no “Soap” yet.)

Blogger Rene Wanner has been collecting all of them, from the intriguing to the totally offensive and racist. They’re like little snapshots of both a utopian and dystopian America, one where an African-American can be a leader imparting hope and another where he can be the target of racism and fear. The site also shows how the image has taken a new pop-culture form, used as the template for all sorts of messages hard to decode.