About

I May Be Stupid refers to a series of Cropped Image Macros with the punchline of an image macro cropped out, such that the only text on the image reads "I may be stupid." The format has been paired with myriad pictures and characters.

Origin

On August 31st, 2019, Tumblr^[1] user manywinged uploaded the earliest known example of the trend, showing a man looking at a sunset with the caption "I may be stupid." The image received over 100,000 notes in four years. On April 26th, 2020, a deleted Reddit^[2] user reposted it to /r/ReactionMemes and received more than 1.900 upvotes in three years (shown below).

Spread

The format started growing more popular in the late 2010s and early 2020s. For example, on September 3rd, 2019, Twitter^[3] user @tamatanz uploaded a #RedrawInosuke fan art piece, using the original image as a reference. The post received more than 3,600 reposts and 8,200 likes in three years (shown below, left). On December 4th, 2020, Reddit^[4] user redditisstupidlolol uploaded an edit of Cirno from Touhou Project fan art by Pixiv^[5] user 市葉葉市 that was uploaded on November 30th, 2014, adding the caption "I May Be Stupid" to the /r/touhou subreddit. The post received more than 1,000 upvotes in three yaers (shown below, right).

On August 14th, 2023, Reddit^[6] user Catz0003 uploaded an image of a cow on the shore with the caption "I may be stupid" (original uploader unknown) to the /r/doodoofard subreddit. The post received more than 2,100 upvotes in two months. An hour later, Reddit^[7] user toelickeryummy reposted it to the /r/Angryupvote subreddit and received more than 25,400 upvotes in two months (shown below, left). On October 13th, 2023, Reddit^[8] user Responsible_Clothes2 uploaded a similar image using Kirby (original image from YouTube^[9] user Johnny Jay, posted on October 28th, 2020) to the /r/The8BitRyanReddit subreddit. The post received more than 4,800 upvotes in one week (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References