Where Does The 'Skeleton On Fire' Meme Come From? The 'Army Of Darkness' Meme Explained

A new skeleton has become the subject of memes recently, leaving old skeleton formats like skull trumpet in its dust. It's called the Skeleton On Fire meme and it comes from the 1993 movie Army of Darkness. Here's what you need to know.

What Is The 'Army Of Darkness Skeleton On Fire' Meme?

The Skeleton on Fire meme comes from the final battle scene in the 1993 cult classic movie Army of Darkness In the scene, one of the protagonist's soldiers shoots a flaming arrow at a skeleton. The sword-wielding skeleton tries to keep marching while on fire, but collapses.

The scene started to become the subject of memes as early as 2015, when an Imgur user attached the caption, "MRW I win the pepper eating challenge and maintain I don't need any milk" to it. Notably, the meme comes from the same scene that inspired the angry dooting meme.

How Is 'Skeleton On Fire' Used In Memes?

The scene became increasingly popular in memes throughout the mid-to-late 2010s and became more popular as a source of ironic meme content around April 2023. The memes often make specific references to the fire, using it to literally represent things like heat or less literally represent things like deteriorating mental health.

Other versions of the meme make reference to the Skeleton War, a meme that started in 2013 on sites like Tumblr that reference a fictional skeleton war.

For the full details on the Army Of Darkness skeleton on fire meme, be sure to check out our entry on the meme here for even more information.