Grandma Finds the Internet

About

Grandma Finds the Internet, also known as Internet Grandma Surprise, is an advice animal image macro series featuring a photograph of an elderly woman looking at a laptop computer screen with captions expressing shock and bewilderment by what she discovers online. The captions often imply she is a naive Internet user who reacts to famous videos, shock site, ads and spam, in a similar vein to Net Noob and First Day on the Internet Kid.

Origin

The original image comes from a stock photograph titled "Elderly Woman Looking at Computer Screen" taken on December 21st, 2005.^[1] On February 4th, 2011, several Redditors posted image macros featuring the stock photo, referring to the advice animal character as "Internet Grandma."^[2][3][4] The captions referenced various shock sites and Internet memes, including 2 Girls 1 Cup, circle jerk and lemon party.

Spread

Few threads containing the advice animal were created until December 30th, 2011, when Redditor dvhann posted an image macro in which the Grandma dies because she failed to forward an email chain letter (shown below, left) to the r/adviceanimals^[10] subreddit. Prior to being archived, the post gained over 1,600 up votes and 10 comments. On August 9th, 2012, Redditor Volgers_Moustache submitted an image macro in which the Internet Grandma expresses confusion when stumbling across a specific type of adult video (shown below, right), garnering more than 1,200 up votes and 30 comments before it was archived.

On January 3rd, 2013, Redditor Skitlez10 submitted a post titled "Grandma hit me with this one today" to /r/AdviceAnimals, featuring an image macro joking about confusing Netflix with a television channel (shown below). Prior to being archived, the post accumulated upwards of 18,200 up votes and 380 comments. On the following day, notable examples from the series were highlighted on the Internet news site UpRoxx^[7] and the lifestyle blog Complex.^[8]

Notable Examples

Search Interest

External References