About

"Challenge Accepted" is an expression used to indicate that the speaker is willing to attempt completing a difficult task. The phrase is often associated with a rage comic character illustrated as a stick figure with crossed arms and a smug facial expression.

Origin

"Challenge accepted" began as a catchphrase for the character Barney Stinson in the television sitcom How I Met Your Mother. The earliest instance of Stinson uttering the phrase can be heard in Season 2, Episode 6 “Aldrin Justice” while announcing his intention to seduce an older woman. The episode originally aired on October 23rd, 2006.

[after Marshal infers his professor is tough on her grades because she needs to get laid]

Barney Stinson: Marshall, I've thought it over and I accept your challenge.
Marshall Eriksen: I didn't challenge you to have sex with…
Barney Stinson: Tomorrow, the cougar hunt begins.

The earliest known instances of the the rage comic character were posted in a thread by Body Building[3] Forums member _MK on November 12th, 2010, which included two challenge accepted examples (shown below).

Spread

On November 26th, 2010, the “Fuck Yeah Challenge Accepted Guy” Tumblr^[2] blog was created. On December 13th, the “Challenge Accepted” Facebook^[8] page was created, which accumulated over 145,000 likes within two years. On April 14th, 2011, a “Challenge Accepted” Meme Generator^[7] page was created, allowing users to make image macros featuring the rage comic character. On October 27th, FunnyJunk^[6] user JanFebMar submitted a rage comic showcasing photographs of a pumpkin carving depicting the character (shown below).

On June 21st, 2012, the Internet humor blog Smosh^[4] published a post titled “Best of the ‘Challenge Accepted’ Meme”, which featured several notable instances of the rage comics. Additional examples of the meme have been posted on the Cheezburger site Memebase.^[5]

Notable Examples

Derivatives

The "challenge considered" rage comic character (shown below, left) is used to indicate that a task is being considered and "challenge denied" (shown below, right) is used to indicate that a task has been rejected.

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Search Interest

External References