![Matrix Morpheus Matrix Morpheus](https://i.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/square/000/009/889/Morpheus2.jpg)
Matrix Morpheus
Part of a series on The Matrix. [View Related Entries]
About
Matrix Morpheus is an advice animal image macro series featuring a screen capture of the fictional character Morpheus[1] (played by Lawrence Fishburne) from The Matrix franchise.[2] The captions typically follow a two line format with the first line reading "What if I Told You," followed by a revelation that often belittles futile or petty behavior, in a similar vein to the advice animal characters Conspiracy Keanu and Sudden Clarity Clarence.
Origin
While the line “What if I told you” was never heard in any of the Matrix films, it thought to be a paraphrased interpretation of a scene from The Matrix in which Morpheus informs the protagonist Neo (played by Keanu Reeves) that he lives in is a computer simulation (shown below, left). A different screen capture used in many of the image macros comes from a scene in which Morpheus warns Neo about the artificial intelligence programs known as "Agents" (shown below, right).
On February 11th, 2012, Redditor haveacigaro submitted a post titled "Morpheus Uses a Mac" to the /r/AdviceAnimals[4] subreddit, which featured a screenshot of Morpheus sitting in a chair with a caption informing Macintosh computer users how to take a screenshot using a keyboard shortcut (shown below).
![266.jpg WHAT IFI TOLD YOU COMMAND+CONTROL+SHIFT+4, THEN SPACE THEN CLICKING A WINDOW TOOKA SCREENSHOT quickmeme.com](https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/468/114/266.jpg)
Spread
On March 27th, 2012, Redditor matthewkol186 submitted a Matrix Morpheus image macro with the caption "What if I told you / the side with the USB symbol will always be the top side" (shown below, left),[5] which received over 620 up votes and 35 comments prior to being archived. On the following day, Redditor lindyhop411 submitted an image macro titled "Why I could never take Morpheus seriously" to the /r/AdviceAnimals[6] subreddit, which featured a screen capture of Lawrence Fishburn as the character Cowboy Curtis in the children's television show Pee Wee's Playhouse (shown below, right). Prior to being archived, the post received over 8,000 up votes and 200 comments. As of December 28th, 2012, the Quickmeme[3] page for "Matrix Morpheus" has received over 33,000 submissions.
![c34.jpg WHATIFI TOLD YOU THE SIDE WITH THE USB SYMBOL WILL'ALWAYS BE THE TOP SIDE](https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/367/797/c34.jpg)
![507.jpg WASCOWBOYCURTIS](https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/468/120/507.jpg)
Malware
On December 14th, 2018, the security news blog Trend Micro[9] published an article titled "Criminals Use Malicious Memes That Communicate With Malware," which reported that a type of remote access trojan (RAT) malware was using Matrix Morpheus memes posted to Twitter in order to hide "/print" commands (shown below).
![Malware O.0 Follow 24 56 582 Tweets Tweets&replies Media New to Twitter? Sign up now to get your own bomber bomber bombrmc Oct 2 raq WHAT IFITOLD YOU Joined May 201 Sign up Toronto trends al hageli 2548 Te KidsToWork Caney Jim Rutherford NationalPickdeDay THE RESOURCES ARE NOT REAL](https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/001/441/672/07c.png)
According to the malware analysis site Virus Total,[10] the malware began circulating in October 2018. On December 17th, a post about the discovery was submitted to /r/netsec.[11]
Notable Examples
![#whatchutalkingaboutwillis WHAT IFITOLD YOU HASHTAGS ON FACEBOOK DO NOTHING?](https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/285/844/6b7.png)
![Help catching pokemon WHATIFIT PRESSING A AND B DOESNT HELP YOU CATCH A POKEMON](https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/285/367/56f.jpg)
![USB WHAT IF I TOLD YOU THE SIDE WITH THE USB SYMBOL WILL ALWAYS BE THE TOP SIDE](https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/285/366/1d9.jpg)
![dat shortcut WHAT IFI TOLD YOU CTRL+SHIFT +ESC OPENS TASK MANAGER quickmeme.com](https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/284/729/036.jpg)
![Too true. WHAT IFITOLD YOU YOU CAN HAVE YOUR S----- CONVERSATIONS VIA TEXT AND NOT ON MY NEWSFEED](https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/284/731/181.jpg)
![dats waisis WHAT IFITOLD YOU NOT ALL ASIANS ARE CHINESE quickmeme.com](https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/285/847/61f.png)
Cat Morpheus
On March 25th, 2012, Redditor ZeLittleMan submitted an image macro titled "Cat Morpheus" to the /r/AdviceAnimals[7] subreddit, which featured a black-and-white photograph of a cat wearing sunglasses with the caption "What if I told you / you can't catch the red dot" (shown below, left). Prior to being archived, the post received over 7,700 up votes and 70 comments. As of December 28th, 2012, the "Cat Morpheus" Quickmeme[8] page has received over 100 submissions.
![461.jpg WHAL.IFI TOLD VOU YOU CAN'T CATCH THAT RED DOT quickmeme.com](https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/small/000/468/123/461.jpg)
![1f2.jpg WHALIFITOLDYOU THE STRING IS CONTROLLED BY HUMANS? quickmeme.conm](https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/small/000/468/125/1f2.jpg)
![177.jpg WHAL IFI TOLD VO TTOOKLIKE 2 F------ HOURS FOR THEM TO GET ME TO POSE WITH THESE GLASSES uickmeme.com](https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/small/000/468/124/177.jpg)
Search Interest
External References
[2] Wikipedia – The Matrix
[3] Quickmeme – Matrix Morpheus
[4] Reddit – Morpheus uses a Mac
[5] Reddit – Matrix Morpheus
[6] Reddit – Why I could never take Morpheus seriously
[7] Reddit – Cat Morpheus
[8] Quickmeme – Cat Morpheus
[9] Trend Micro – Cybercriminals Use Malicious Memes that Communicate with Malware
[10] VirusTotal – Application Framework
Top Comments
Cyber6x Moderator
Apr 13, 2012 at 12:15AM EDT
Bastard1
Apr 13, 2012 at 12:06PM EDT