Overview

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie is a children's book about cause and effect published in 1985, written by Laura Numeroff and illustrated by Felicia Bond, about a boy who gives a mouse a cookie, then the mouse makes numerous requests as a result, including wanting a glass of milk, a mirror to avoid a milk mustache, scissors to cut his hair, etc. The story ends with the mouse looking at the fridge and requesting a glass of milk and a cookie, thus starting the cycle over again. The book became an increasing subject of memes throughout the 2010s, including children's book cover parodies and jokes about giving a mouse a cookie, becoming increasingly popular throughout the 2020s.

History

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie was published by Harper and Row in 1985. The story has been described as a "circular tale"^[1] and is about a mouse who is given a cookie, then makes numerous, arguably unreasonable requests afterward to go along with the cookie. The mouse has a nap, sees the fridge, wants a glass of milk, then wants a cookie to go with the milk, ending the circle. Several readings of the story have been posted to YouTube throughout the 2000s (example shown below). The book is the first in the "If You Give…" series.^[11]

In 2015, the book was adapted into an animated series, which is available on Amazon Prime Video.^[12]

Online Presence / Memes

The book became the subject of memes throughout the 2000s. Some of the earliest memes about the book are children's book cover parodies, two of which were posted to Know Your Meme^[2][3] in March and June 2014 respectively (shown below, left and right). On May 15th, 2016, Extra Fabulous Comics posted a webcomic to Reddit^[4] referencing the book.

On February 17th, 2021, Instagram^[5] user crazy.vatican.memer posted a meme using Jonah Hill's face under the caption, "Idgaf I'll give a mouse a cookie I'm just wild like that" (shown below). The meme gained viral spread, including being reposted to Twitter^[6] by @greerdraws on June 25th, garnering over 59,000 likes in two years (shown below). It was posted to Instagram^[7] again in January 2023 by awake_snake, garnering over 500,000 likes in two months.

On August 4th, 2022, Twitter^[8] user @RohnJobert posted, "Fuuuuuuck me dude. I gave a mouse a cookie," later commenting, "Great. He asked for milk. Unreal," garnering over 130,000 likes and 11,000 retweets in seven months (shown below, left). The meme gained viral spread, including a repost by Instagram^[9] user awake_snake in March 2023 that gained over 490,000 likes in 10 days. On November 23rd, Instagram^[10] user a.thousand.apologies posted an image macro referencing the book that garnered over 41,000 likes in four months (shown below, right).

On March 10th, 2023, Twitter^[13] user @zachsilberberg posted a fake MrBeast thumbnail where MrBeast gives a mouse a cookie, garnering over 16,800 likes in three days (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References