JESUS CHRIST IT'S A LION GET IN THE CAR!

About

JESUS CHRIST IT’S A LION GET IN THE CAR! is a popular set of image macros centered around two behavioral concepts (listed below) originating from 4chan’s random board, /b/.

The Two Behavioral Concepts

There are two commonalities surrounding most images associated to “JESUS CHRIST IT’S A LION!”:

• The first and more common one is the usage of the text, “JESUS CHRIST IT’S A LION GET IN THE CAR”, which is often superimposed onto images of lions or any other related subject matter.
• If lions are not used, the second factor surrounding it is the lion face emoticon (). This emoticon is often shopped into images in such a way that it takes the place of the face of the original character/s on the picture.

Phrase Origin

The phrase comes from a webcomic known as "Toothpaste For Dinner":toothpastefordinner.com. It was titled “Basic Electronic Symbols” and was posted on August 30, 2005.

Image Origin

During the summer of 2005, deviantART user Verdot created an image on MS Paint on a military computer comprised of the lion emoticon in a circle with the text “RAWR I AM A LION”.

4chan and Further Spread

The next year, on February 2006, the comic was posted on 4chan to start a conversation about electronic symbols. Verdot saw the thread and posted the infamous image where it instantly became a hit, being reposted numerous times after its introduction to the site. What accompanied the picture was the text “ALL I LERNED IN COLEGE”.

Eventually, the image spread like wildfire, being referenced in other websites. Numerous amount of Photoshops of the image started cropping up on the internet.

Operation LIONCASH

Another short-lived graffiti meme was spawned from this where money was defaced with the lion emoticon for the purpose of making all forms of currency “LIONCASH”.

See the article for more information about this sub-meme.

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