About

But You Have Heard Of Me is a quote from Pirates of the Caribbean protagonist Jack Sparrow, said as a retort to his reputation as a lousy pirate. This exchange has been turned into a snowclone online, and the associated scene, into an exploitable; they've especially been used in many memes about things or people that are infamously bad at what they do.

Origin

The movie *Pirates of the Caribbean" was released in theaters in July 9th, 2003. In one famous scene, during Jack Sparrow's arrest, James Norrington has this exchange with him:

- You are, without doubt, the worst pirate I've ever heard of.
- … But you have heard of me.

The earliest presence of this scene online is a YouTube clip of that scene^[1], posted on August 7th, 2006 (see below).

The earliest online reference to that scene, as a snowclone, comes from a post^[2] in a caption contest, posted on January 11th, 2004. The post (see quote and screenshot below) associates to a screenshot of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets this dialogue:

Harry: You have to be the worst wizard I’ve ever heard of…
Lockhart: But you have heard of me!

The earliest online picture of this scene^[3], using two screenshots of the scene and their captions, in a fashion that would later be copied for the most common template of the meme, was uploaded on April 13th, 2011.

Spread

This meme was used a lot online, mainly as a template of the scene combined with a snowclone of the dialogue, to refer to infamous failures and embarrassing amateurism, as well as to famous pirates on occasion. It has become especially widespread on Reddit. On February 8th, 2020, a meme featuring Sasuke the Snake, a potential new mascot for r/Animemes, was posted^[4] in the subreddit, where it gained over 8,800 points in under 5 years.

On r/PrequelMemes, a meme^[5] posted on January 19th, 2021, and refering to Star Wars pirate character Hondo Ohnaka, gathered over 15,000 points in under 4 years.

On r/memes, a meme^[6] posted on January 30th, 2021, and refering to Internet-famous trader POTATO_IN_MY_ASS, in the midst of the WallStreetBets GameStop Short Squeeze, gathered over 195,000 points in under 4 years.

On Tumblr, a Steven Universe fanart^[7] by Vincenzo Nova, posted on July 23rd, 2017 and redrawing this scene, gathered over 12,800 notes in 7 years.

Relevant Examples

Template

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External References