Downvoting Roman / Commodus Thumbsdown

Downvoting Roman / Commodus Thumbsdown

Part of a series on Reddit. [View Related Entries]

Updated Mar 25, 2016 at 12:14PM EDT by Brad.

Added Feb 20, 2012 at 01:37AM EST by Dead Account.

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"INTRODUCING [NEW MEMEI" LET ME SHOW YOU A CLASSIC


About

Downvoting Roman / Commodus Thumbsdown is an Advice Animal style image macro series featuring a stillshot of actor Joaquin Phoenix[1] as Emperor Commodus in the 2000 epic film Gladiator. The image depicts a stone-faced Commodus giving a thumbs down and the overlaid text usually conveys dissatisfaction towards a post on a website or forum where a voting system is present, especially on Reddit.

Origin

The still photo is from a scene in the 2000 film Gladiator.[2] After the main character, Maximus Decimus Meridius, defeats his opponent in battle, Emperor Commodus gives a thumbs down in a dramatic gesture of disapproval, thereby requiring Maximus to kill his opponent. The first instance of the image macro was posted to the Advice Animals subreddit[11] on July 6th, 2011 but did not receive any points. However, another instance posted the next day[12] received 2735 up votes and 698 points, reaching the frontpage of Reddit.




PICTURE ON NO-PICTURE DAY? NO UPVOTE DAY! quickmeme.co IT'S YOUR WEDDING DAY? HOW SWEET HERE, HAVE SOMETHING BLUE kmeme.com

Spread

Downvoting Roman has also been featured on The Bigster[9] and Slacktory[13] and has a Facebook fan page.[10] Additional instances can also be found on Tumblr[6], MemeRush[7] and Troll.me.[8] As of September 2013, Downvoting Roman has more than 24,000 results on Quickmeme[3], nearly 1,200 results on Memegenerator[4] and more than 2,000 results[5] on the AdviceAnimal subreddit.

Notable Examples


[FIRST POST! FIRST DOWNVOTE. WHO THE F--- WOULD DOWNVOTE THIS? DOWNVOTE REPOST quickmeme.com
NICE OPINION TOO BAD ITISN'T THE SAME AS MINE "HATERS GONNA HATE" SURE DO "KARMA DOESN'T MEAN ANYTHING! IAGREE
ICANHASCHEEZBURGER? YOUCANHASDOWNVOTE vickmeme PARANOID PARROT THINKS HE'S NEXT HE'S RIGHT qwickmeme "THIS" THIS.

Derivatives

The Downvoting Roman series has also spawned some derivatives, including an animated GIF version of Commodus giving a thumbs down, as well as a My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic version[14] which was created specifically as a reaction image for the My Little Pony subreddit on December 29th, 2011. The My Little Pony derivative received 3985 up votes and 1441 points overall.



Another well-known GIF derivative depicts a different scene from the movie, in which Emperor Commorus reluctantly gives a thumbs up after folding under pressure from the audience. This image has been used on Reddit as a way of begrudgingly giving an upvote.


MAKE GIFS AT GIESOUP COM

Search Interest

Search queries for "downvoting roman" saw an initial spike in early June 2011 when the first Advice Animal threads began appearing.

External References

Recent Videos 2 total

Recent Images 54 total



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