What's The Origin Of The 'Chain Breaking' Image? Memes Featuring A Man Breaking His Chains Explained

Stock photography is a criminally underrated genre of memes given how many jokes these corporate-coded studio photos have actually inspired. Whether it's a woman laughing into her dry salad or a man in a suit doing parkour, there's something about a sterile made-for-sale photo that immediately inspires laughter.

Enter "Man Breaking Chains," a stock photo of a silhouette dramatically snapping the chains binding his hands in a pose so triumphant, you can almost hear the trumpets swell.

This dreamy, sunset-tinted image has become a go-to for memes about breaking free from everything, from toxic relationships to mildly inconvenient obligations. So, where did this meme start, anyway?

Where Did The Stock Image Of A Man Breaking His Chains Come From?

The image of the man freeing himself from his chains was part of a larger selection of orange-tinted, backlit stock photos uploaded to Shutterstock by a user named Guitarfoto back in 2017.

However, the first time the image was used as a meme was in a 2022 tweet by @FRKSCHEEKS, who wrote, "POV: you just dropped Chrom for Roy." The meme, a Super Smash Bros. Ultimate reference, gained over 60 retweets and 1,300 likes in seven months.

How Did The Man Breaking His Chains Meme Spread?

It didn't take long for the iconic image to go viral, with a number of big Twitter pages reposting it in the following months. On October 26th, 2022, Twitter user @upblissed captioned the image, "my ex jus died in a car crash," gathering over 30,000 likes in a year.

The meme soon caught on as a way for people to joke about releasing their burdens and breaking free from responsibility, as seen in a January 2023 joke posted by Twitter user @thaboyjozu, and a January 18th meme posted by @slvppy.

What Are Some More Examples Of The Chains Breaking Meme?

For the full history of Man Breaking Chains, be sure to check out Know Your Meme's encyclopedia entry for more information.