About

A Gnomes Runs Past Me refers to a series of memes on X, formerly Twitter, where a variation of the catchphrase "a gnome runs past me" is inserted in the middle of a sentence as if the writer saw a gnome run by them and it distracted them from finishing their thought. The trend was popularized on X in November 2023 and first appeared on the app earlier that year.

Origin

It is unclear who started the "gnome runs past" meme. The earliest known example was posted by an X^[1] user on March 4th, 2023, writing, "I'm 20 and my gf is – *gnome runs past* Holy shit did you just see that," garnering around three likes in eight months. On August 29th, X^[2] user @Ivycrose_ posted a similar meme, garnering around 20 likes in three months.

On September 2nd, X^[3] user @Trixxiest1X posted, "Yeah actually! i- *gnome runs really fast past me* what was that? did we catch that on camera?" garnering over 21,000 likes in two months (shown below). This is the earliest known version of the meme to gain notable engagement.

Spread

The meme spread on X throughout November 2023. On November 13th, 2023, X^[4] user @itsashotgunbaby quote-reposted a post about the new Garfield movie, writing, "wow. they made him look like that? that's- *a gnome runs past me and giggles* did you guys see that? what was that thing?" garnering over 3,100 likes in four days (shown below).

On November 13th, X^[5] user @M1das_OW2 posted another version of the meme, garnering over 2,800 likes in four days (shown below). On November 15th, the Garfield version of the meme was reposted by Instagram^[6][7][8] users new.incognito.tab, dealership._ and inhalemybees, garnering over 63,000, 38,000 and 62,000 likes respectively in two days.

Various Examples

Search Interest

Unavailable.

External References