About

Any Adult Male Who X Needs to Immediately Turn In His Man Card is a phrasal template and image macro pairing a photograph of actor and director Clint Eastwood with a caption that states that if an adult man does a certain thing, he should no longer be considered a man and "turn in his man card." Originally posted in 2016, the meme format saw a resurgence in virality in 2021 as the source material for post-ironic recaptions on iFunny.

Origin

On July 12th, 2016, during the peak time of the Pokemon GO popularity, the now-defunct Facebook^[1] page Men United posted an image macro that combined a black-and-white photograph of actor and director Clint Eastwood with the caption reading, "Any adult male who plays this Pokémon shit needs to immediately turn in his man card" (post shown below).

Spread

In July 2016, the image was widely shared online on Facebook and other websites. For example, on July 14th, 2016, Clint Eastwood's son, Scott Eastwood, shared it on Facebook^[2] with an ironic comment, with the post gaining over 11,000 reactions and 1,600 shares in seven years.

Prior to March 2021, the macro saw a limited presence online. On November 1st, 2017, the Facebook^[3] page Ohio State Sucks posted a meme about Ohio State Buckeyes fans that gained over 580 reactions and 430 likes in six years (shown below, left). On September 5th, 2020, the Twitter^[4] gimmick account @CroppedBoomers posted a cropped version of the image macro reading just "plays this Pokémon shit" (shown below, right). The post gained over 240 retweets and 2,500 likes in three years.

The image gained more exposure as a recaption format on March 18th, 2021, when iFunny^[5] user wide posted a recaptioned version that gained over 1,400 smiles in two years (shown below, left). On August 21st, 2021, the same user wide posted^[6] a version that received over 1,600 smiles in the same period (shown below, right).

The posts then prompted viral popularity of the format in the fall of 2021.

On September 30th, 2021, iFunny^[7] user Kaner recaptioned the format, "Erm.. What the deuce," with the post popularizing the titular format on the app.

Related Memes

What the Deuce

Erm… What the Deuce refers to a series of reaction images expressing surprise and confusion. Originally a catchphrase of Stewie Griffin from Family Guy, the trend gained popularity on iFunny in early October 2021 after a reaction image of actor and director Clint Eastwood captioned with it went viral.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References