15 Minutes Late With Starbucks

About

15 Minutes Late With Starbucks is an expression used to mock someone who shows up late to a meeting or event because he or she appears to have stopped for coffee on the way.

Origin

On September 3rd, 2012, Twitter user emre published a tweet which claimed that pop singer Taylor Swift looked like someone who would show up late to class with Starbucks. Within the next six months, the tweet received over 1,000 retweets and 700 favorites.

Spread

On January 30th, 2013, Tumblr^[2] user cristaly posted an illustration of the Homestuck character Jade Harley holding a Starbucks cup (shown below) with the caption “Enters the Medium 15 minutes late with Starbucks.” Within five weeks, the post received over 3,000 notes.

On February 6th, Tumblr^[7] user s0cksy posted a joke about a baby born late with Starbucks, which accumulated upwards of 40,000 notes within the next month.

On February 17th, Redditor koobaxion submitted a post to the /r/homestuck^[1] subreddit featuring a screenshot of a Tumblr post with the Homestuck character John Egbert carrying Starbucks coffee (shown below). Within 17 days, the post gained more than 160 up votes and 10 comments.

On February 20th, Homestuck^[3] released an update in which the character John appears 15 pages after the intermission begins with a Starbucks cup on the table next to him (shown below). The same day, the panel was cited in the Homestuck memes TV Tropes page.^[4]

Notable Examples

Many Tumblr^[6] and DeviantArt^[5] users have submitted fan art illustrations inspired by the meme, often featuring fictional characters from films, television shows and video games.

Search Interest

External References