About

Are You a Wizard? is an image macro series typically featuring wall-eyed subjects staring into the distance while wearing a confused-looking expression. It is sometimes used as a reaction image to an extraordinary or absurd remark on imageboards or web forums and can be used sarcastically to point out an obvious statement in a similar vein to Captain Obvious.

Origin

One of the earliest mentions of the phrase "Are you a wizard?" online comes from the webcomic “Left Handed Toons”^[7] in a comic titled “Wizard Time” (shown below, left) posted on June 19th, 2009. In early 2010, a MemeGenerator page was created for "Are You a Wizard," featuring a photograph of a mustachioed man wearing glasses with the caption "Are you a wizard?" (shown below, right). The original Meme Generator page has since been removed.

Spread

The original Meme Generator image macro was reposted to the blog DangerousMinds^[8] on March 23rd, 2010. On March 30th, Body Building Forums^[10] member craigcmead replied with the image macro in response to a post outlining the chemical structure of Pyrucate decarboxylase. On April 1st, the earliest archived 4chan^[9] thread featuring the image was posted to the /b/ (random) board in response to instructions on how to access hidden music on the Windows operating system. On May 16th, a new Meme Generator^[11] page was created, which featured a photograph of a young boy wearing glasses accompanied by the caption "Are you a wizard?" (shown below).

On May 20th, the Internet humor site The Chive^[1] highlighted the original Meme Generator image macro in a post titled "Captions, making ordinary photos LOL." On May 22nd, an image macro based on a photograph of Insane Clown Posse member Violent J with the caption “Are you a magnet?” (shown below) was featured on MyConfinedSpace,^[2] which referenced the hip hop duo’s 2009 single "Miracles".

The meme has since spread to other image-sharing communities, such as the Internet humor site FunnyJunk^[6] and the microblogging site Tumblr under the tag “#are you a wizard.”^[13] As of September 10th, 2012, the "Are you a Wizard?" Facebook^[12] page has accumulated over 1,750 likes.

Notable Examples

Many other photographs featuring wall-eyed or disturbed-looking subjects have been captioned with the phrase.

Search Interest

Search query volume for "are you a wizard" began rising in February of 2010.

External References