The neckbeard is a familiar social archetype. As 19th-century French novelist Honoré de Balzac wrote, the mission of the artist working in narrative is to study the “social species” that exist in our world, and the neckbeard is certainly one of these. An aficionado of anime and video games, usually white and male, canonically residing in his mother’s basement and overweight. He is an incel, a screen addict, and his social skills are non-existent.

There is nobody who exactly fits this profile, but if you’re on a website devoted to the study of memes (or writing for one), odds are that you correspond at least a little bit to this modern type. If you feel like it doesn’t describe you at all, perhaps look in the mirror. The power of the neckbeard type is that all of us. Whether we have necks, beards or none of the above, are a little bit neckbeard at least in our hearts. These memes from Reddit's /r/neckbeard will show you that power.