About

The act of placing one’s face in one’s hands, or “facepalming” is a gesture of nonverbal-communication common among many cultures. The action conveys a message of dismay and is often a reaction toward someone’s momentary lapse of logic, judgement, or memory. This reaction may be directed toward another person or be self-deprecating.

Notable instances

One of the most popular facepalm images is one of Captain Jean-Luc Picard from Star Trek the Next Generation taken from the episode “Deja Q,” in which Picard is shown reacting to a stressful situation (shown below).

Notable YTMND’s include:

• Epic Picard Facepalm Maneuvers
• Facepalm with Price is Right Loser Sound

Google Insights

Google Insights shows a continued growth trend stemming from about 2005, with no signs of slowing. “Facepalm” has yet to peak, so there’s really no telling just how wide-spread this meme will become.

Tracing the Origin

The earliest known appearance of the term “facepalm” on urbandictionary.com appeared on February 10th, 2004

Similar to headdesk
Today I locked my keys in my car. Again. facepalm
get this def on a mug Mug
by Moondog Feb 10, 2004

Facepalm first appeared in Wiktionary.com in 2005.

Picard Facepalm

The Picard facepalm is a reaction image featuring a screen capture of Picard holding his face in his hand from the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “Deja Q” (Season 3 Episode 13).^[2] In the episode, Picard places his face in his hand after the mischievous character Q requests to board the Enterprise.

More resources

• Facepalm on Wiktionary
• Facepalm on Urban Dictionary
• Facepalm.org (Created October 2007)
• Facepalm.com (Created May 2007)