About

Getting Ready to Shave Goatee is an image macro series featuring an image of a man shaving his goatee while using a plastic template. Online, people use the image to describe a specific type of man that they believe to be overly masculine and unfashionable, targeting communities in which the goatee facial hairstyle is popular.

Origin

The man shaving image comes from promotional material for "Bluelans Men Neckline Beard Goatee Shaving Template Ruler DIY Trimming Shaping Guide Tool" (shown below).^[1]

On August 27th, 2020, Facebook ^[2] user MontanaMemes posted the earliest known usage of the image. They captioned the photo, "Guys in Great Falls getting ready for date night." The post received more than 125 reactions in less than one year (shown below).

Spread

The meme did spread in a significant way until the following year. On January 1st, 2021, Twitter ^[3] user @PeterHamby tweeted the image with the caption, "Ohio State and Clemson fans getting ready for the big game." The tweet received more than 50,000 likes and 4,000 retweets in less than two months (shown below, left).

Toward the end of the month, on January 28th, Twitter^[4] user @thisdiegolopez tweeted the image with the caption, "Getting ready to defend the importance of capitalism online." The post received more than 127,000 likes and 14,000 retweets in less than one month (shown below, center).

The meme continued to spread on Twitter over the next few weeks. On February 8th, Twitter^[5] user @bones_yyy shared the image, with the caption, "Getting ready to tweet 'I don't know who this @phoebe_bridgers lady is'." The post received more than 24,000 likes and 1,100 retweets in less than two weeks (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Template

Search Interest

Not available.

External References