About

Buff Tom refers to an exploitable fanart image of characters Tom and Jerry from the animated series of the same name. The image features an unusually muscular depiction of the cat Tom looming over the mouse Jerry in a menacing manner. Originally uploaded in 2014, the fan art did not gain popularity on Reddit until 2018.

Origin

On April 13th, 2014, Fur Affinity^[1] online gallery user GeltyDrake posted a fanart image of cartoon characters Tom and Jerry titled "B.U.T. – Tom & Jerry". The image has since gained over 7,600 views on the website.

On March 15th, 2018, Redditor space_squid posted the image to /r/bossfight^[2] subreddit.

On August 4th, 2018, Redditor Ejwhite25990808 posted a meme referencing the death of Big Nigga to /r/dankmemes^[3] subreddit, marking the first known use of the fanart as an exploitable.

On August 6th, a more popular version of the meme was posted by user emperor2111 to /r/dankmemes.^[4] The post gained over 4,400 upvotes.

Spread

In the following days, the format saw extensive use on Reddit, with several notable examples being posted to /r/dankmemes.^[5] Meanwhile, other variations of the meme also appeared on 9GAG^[6], Instagram^[7] and Twitter^[8].

In late November 2018, the meme saw a resurgence in popularity after a version of the meme was submitted by Redditor Joejoeswanson to the /r/dankmemes^[9] subreddit. The post gained over 46,400 upvotes within the first 12 hours.

Various Examples

Template

Search Interest

External References