About

Born to Dilly Dally, Forced to Lock In refers to a version of the Born to X, Forced to Y meme that achieved virality as an exploitable image caption format in 2024. The meme implies that the person posting, or the character in the image, was born to lead a relaxed life free of worries but is instead forced to lock in and study, work or otherwise perform their duties. The format typically includes the two captions above a pair of coinciding pictures swapped out by meme creators.

Origin

On February 17th, 2024, X^[1] / Twitter user @fatfatpankocat posted a two-panel cat meme depicting a cat acting silly and sitting behind a tiny laptop with the caption, "Born to dilly dally / Forced to lock in," with "locking in" meaning focusing. The post (shown below) received over 2,500 reposts and 21,000 likes in six months.

Spread

The image saw viral spread through reposts in the following months. For example, a February 20th, 2024, repost in the Facebook^[2] group Headbang Society gained over 530 reactions and 300 shares in six months. A Tumblr^[3] repost made prior to May 14th garnered over 9,700 reblogs and 12,000 likes in three months.

On March 1st, 2024, X^[4] user @adamgreattweet made a post with a joke based on the caption, writing, "I wasn't made to hustle and grind I was born to dilly and dally." The post (shown below) received over 12,000 reposts and 44,000 likes in six months.

The viral spread of the original meme was followed by more memes using the caption on X, Tumblr and Reddit. For example, on March 14th. X^[5] user @Blue_The_Hyena posted a hyena version of the meme that received over 40 reposts and 330 likes in four months (shown below, left).

On July 17th, 2024, X^[6] user @l0stinthesky posted a meme about wrestler Iyo Sky, which garnered over 150 reposts and 1,400 likes in one month (shown below, right).

More memes, including those using fan art, followed in late July and August 2024.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References