About

Bad Teacher refers to a snowclone spread on Twitter in which an initially unidentified speaker offers to teach a lesson on a certain topic. Then, experts in that topic respond with nervous actions. The punchline is the reveal of who is teaching the lesson.

Origin

On December 31st, 2017, Twitter user @holiday805^[1] wrote the first variation of the meme, using memebers of the K-pop girl group Girls' Generation, gaining over 280 retweets and 480 likes (shown below).

Spread

Later that day, Twitter user @itaeye^[2] uploaded a more popular variation featuring other K-pop stars, gaining over 1,500 retweets and 2,600 likes (shown below, left). Over the following week, the tweet expanded into other fandoms, and generally followed a formula wherein the one promoting a lesson would be a humorous example of someone who did not know the topic at hand. For example, a popular example tweeted by @yomiadegoke^[3] referenced Big Shaq teaching math, gaining over 1,100 retweets and 1,600 likes (shown below, right).

Other variations on the tweet used the format to make more sincere fandom-based points. For example, Twitter user @Track9__^[4] uploaded a joke about the successful albums of Lorde and Taylor Swift, gaining over 270 retweets (shown below, left). A fan account of actor Timothy Chamelée used the format to praise the actor, gaining over 40 retweets and 160 likes (shown below, right).^[5] The tweets were covered by The Daily Dot.^[6]

Various Examples

Search Interest

Unavailable

External References