'If he wanted to, he would': The best memes and reactions to the Empire State Building proposal in NYC

Elna McHilderson • Managing Editor

Jul 2, 2026 3:00 PM EDT

What is your dream proposal and does it involve scaling the Empire State Building?

Well, 33-year-old Angela Nikolau and 32-year-old Ivan Keznetsov are two international "roof-topping" daredevils in love who beat you to it. The duo have a Netflix documentary about their skyscraper climbs called Skywalkers: A Love Story and have climbed many tall buildings before. Their most recent, and debatably their most famous to date, was climbing to the top of the antenna on the 1,450-foot Empire State Building in Midtown Manhattan, NYC on July 1st. Why is it already getting more attention than all of their climbs so far? Because they unfurled a meaningful banner that read, "When the power of love beats the love of power the world knows peace," before Keznetsov got on one knee to propose to Nikolau.

Are they activists? Are they just two crazy kids in love? Are they clout chasers? Honestly, it doesn't even matter. What they did seems to be significant to everyone in different ways. To the lovers, the fighters, and, especially, to the memers. That's right, besties. You're on Memebase, aren't you? So you know we're all about the memes. Meme is life.

From hilarious Twitter (X) reactions and memes perfectly capturing the moment in more ways than one, we have them here for you to LOL over. We hope these love birds get the lowest charges possible and we get invited to the wedding! We'd take that over Taylor Swift's wedding any day.