About

Hol' Up refers to a subgenre of memes, a subreddit and a meme template from Fat Albert. Memes in this subgenre can be found in various forms, such as exploitables, meme templates and video memes, as well as a standalone slang term meaning "hold up."

Origin

One of the earliest examples of Hol' Up within the meme genre comes from the meme Hold the Fuck Up, which was an image macro series dating back to 2013. More recent examples of this meme genre can be found in the Vault Boy Hold Up format, which came around in 2017. A lesser-used version of the meme uses the character Bucky from Fat Albert in a racially stereotypical way, as seen in the post on the /r/Memes subreddit by Redditor^[1] u/pashayevrahman on March 15th, 2021, that received 16,000 upvotes in nine months (shown below).

Spread

While "Hold The Fuck Up" helped to create initial interest in the meme genre, it wasn't until Vault Boy Hold Up that it was popularized and became an entire genre on its own. One of the first instances of this meme is found on the /r/MemeEconomy subreddit, posted by Redditor^[4] Mciscool20 on September 17th, 2018, earning 1,000 upvotes in three years (shown below).

The Vault Boy Hold Up proved to be significant enough to create the subgenre, as seen on October 29th, 2018, when a subreddit for these types of memes was made, called /r/HolUp.^[2] Within three years, the subreddit accumulated over 2.75 million subscribers. The type of posts seen on the subreddit don't have a particular format or execution style, with many of them looking similar to the post by Redditor^[3] Putin-is-listening on April 5th, 2021, about being skeptical over a Forbes article and headline (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References