About

I Ate My Grandma refers to a memorable scene and quote from the 2016 Disney animated film Moana. The scene features a character named Tamatoa, depicted as a giant purple crab, holding the main character Moana trying to get the necklace her grandmother gave to her, to which he says the catchphrase, "I ate my grandma." Online, the scene was popularized as an image macro meme, also receiving fan art and redraws featuring characters from other works of art over the following years.

Origin

On November 23rd, 2016, Disney animated film Moana premiered in the United States.^[1] In one scene of the film, Moana is being held by the giant crab Tamatoa after seeking her grandma's necklace, as he is attracted to shiny objects. She refuses to give the precious item to him, saying it was a gift from her grandma, to which Tamatoa replies, "I ate my grandma."

The earliest online mention of the scene was a fan art posted on DeviantArt^[2] on December 4th, 2016, by user TeamNinjaBug in which he drew the giant crab eating his grandma (shown below), amassing roughly 35 favorites and 11 comments in eight years.

The earliest post of the scene was then uploaded on YouTube^[3] on July 30th, 2017, by user @gangerteam2139. The video (shown below) received more than 22,000 views and 60 likes in seven years.

Spread

The scene gained online virality over the subsequent years, often being posted as a humorous image macro meme or fan art. For example, on March 30th, 2021, Tumblr^[4] user Gecko uploaded a fan art inspired by the Moana scene (shown below), garnering over 125 notes in three years.

TikTokers also shared the clip in the format of comedy skits and lip dubs. For example, on August 2nd, 2022, TikTok^[5] user @king_k004 recreated the scene with a friend (shown below, left), amassing more than 2.6 million plays and 192,000 likes in two years. On November 10th, 2023, TikTok^[6] user @unhairy_nuts posted a fan edit of the giant crab (shown below, right), which received roughly 208,000 likes in three months.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References