About

Average Subplot or Average Side Plot refers to a series of memes commenting on wackiness of typical subplots involving certain characters in popular sitcoms, including Malcolm in the Middle, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Family Guy and other TV shows or media. Spawned by a viral SpongeBob in Silent Hill meme, the format initially achieved virality in July 2023.

Origin

On July 9th, 2023, X^[1] / Twitter user @seabrowngoose posted a SpongeBob in Silent Hill meme captioned with a joke about a typical subplot involving the character Francis Wilkerson from the comedy television series Malcolm in the Middle. The post (shown below) received over 7,700 reposts and 48,400 likes in three months.

Spread

On July 9th, 2023, and in the following days, more similar caption memes based on the images were posted on X. For example, on that day, X user @neinmuse^[2] posted an iCarly version of the joke that received over 11,300 reposts and 75,800 likes in three months (shown below, left).

On August 11th, 2023, Instagram^[3] user @battle_bros_incorporated a captioned viral video by TikToker^[4] @mrlurceiber with a joke about Snoopy's subplots in Peanuts (authorship unconfirmed, shown below). The upload gained over 1,300 likes in two months. On August 14th, iFunny^[5] user @AUSSIE_BEAR posted a remade version of the meme that was featured on the app and garnered over 39,500 smiles in two months.

In October 2023, the format saw a new surge in popularity on TikTok as several video caption memes based on it went viral.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References