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What Is The 'Midwit' Meme And What Does It Mean? The 'IQ Bell Curve' Meme Explained
The "midwit" meme has been one of the most prominent exploitable images on the internet, which essentially tries to summarize the IQ spectrum from dumbest, average and smartest intelligence, showing that sometimes people engage in overly complex reasoning while individuals at either end of the IQ Bell Curve tend to arrive at similar conclusions, albeit through different rationales.
Despite being heavily used to express political, religious and other controversial opinions, the “midwit” meme does show an interesting pattern in society, especially if we relate it to online culture.
Before explaining the midwit meme, we have to talk about the "horseshoe theory," which asserts that advocates of the far-left and the far-right have “similar” goals while being guided by different reasoning, with an analogy resembling the way that the opposite ends of a horseshoe are close together.
If you're unsure why those who possess average intelligence are referred to online as "midwits,” here’s a breakdown of the prevalent "IQ Bell Curve Midwit" meme and its many Wojaks since it first popped up over a decade ago.
What Is Midwit Meme?
The midwit meme centers around the IQ bell curve, which represents the distribution of intelligence across a population, serving as a joke and critique about intelligence and elitism, mocking the pretentiousness of average individuals who overestimate their abilities.
It all started in February 201, when far-right activist and writer Vox Day coined the word "mid-witted," which was later transformed to “midwit” by 4chan users referring to a person of average intelligence.
Online, the meme thrives on the creative usage of different Wojak characters – representing low, average and high intelligence – depicting a humorous yet critical view of how wisdom is perceived in modern discourse.
Who Posted The First IQ Bell Curve Meme?
The earliest documented use of the IQ bell curve in a meme context appeared in January 2017, where it was employed to illustrate the overlapping political views of Republicans and Democrats based on the IQ intelligence spectrum.
How Is the Midwit Meme Used Online?
Although the midwit meme was initially niched to 4chan channels, the format began to evolve and gain traction on social media in 2019, becoming a recognizable part of meme culture for almost any type of fandom discussion.
Variations typically feature Wojak characters positioned along the IQ bell curve: the lowest IQ level is a variant of Brainlet, in the middle of the curve is a midwit crying Wojak, and at the top end is a monk-like Wojak wearing a cloak.
In this version, the Monk Wojak and the Brainlet Wojak agree with one another while the Midwit Wojak offers an unnecessarily complicated analysis.
For example, on January 3rd, 2021, a Redditor on the /r/dndmemes subreddit posted a version of the meme (seen below, top) and another Reddit user on /r/okbuddyphd created a different version of the image on October 15th, 2022, riffing off the IQ bell curve format (seen below, bottom) as it continued to spread online and see usage outside strictly political settings.
For the full history of the Midwit meme, be sure to check out Know Your Meme's encyclopedia entry for more information.
