About

Awake Man Thinking in Bed refers to an exploitable image macro based on a webcomic in which a stick figure person lies in bed awake at 2:39 a.m. and thinks about something random. In memes, a thought that keeps the person awake is typically edited into the character's thought cloud. The format was popularized in early 2021, primarily on Twitter.

Origin

On January 28th, 2021, Pinterest^[1][2] user @chaotichomie posted two single-panel comics depicting a stick figure person in his bed (shown below, left and right). In one of the comics, the person is shown lying awake at 2:39 a.m. with a thought that going to therapy may cause them to lose their sense of humor, thus keeping them awake.

Spread

On January 28th, 2021, @chaotichomie posted^[3][4] two edits of the comic (one image shown below, left). On January 29th, 2021, Twitter^[5] user @aal3ssiia then posted an edit of the comic that received over 43,200 retweets and 220,900 likes in two months (shown below, center). On the same day, Twitter^[6] user @justcaem posted an edit that gained over 76,300 retweets and 433,000 likes in the same period (shown below, right).

In the following weeks, the meme format achieved significant spread online. For example, on February 1st, 2021, Instagram user th3co0chieman posted a collection of seven versions of the meme that received over 13,200 likes in two months. On February 2nd, Twitter user @cassinall posted an edit that gained over 20,200 retweets and 94,200 likes in the same period. On March 10th, Twitter user @ebbiesama posted a meme in which the person could not fall asleep due to "Chug Jug With You" being stuck in his head, with the meme gaining over 9,600 retweets and 46,700 likes.

Various Examples

Template

Search Interest

External References