About

Kill Me is an image macro series in which people, animals or objects are depicted as if they're suffering from pain, such as "implied" physical deformity, or otherwise uncomfortable conditions. The images are often accompanied by the caption “Kill me”, reflecting the subject’s desire to be put out of misery.

Origin

The image macros may have been inspired by a scene in the 1986 science fiction film Aliens, in which a human is discovered suffering in a cocoon who begs to be killed (shown below). In the 1997 science fiction film Alien Resurrection, the fourth movie in the Alien franchise, the protagonist Ripley encounters a deformed clone of herself, who pleads to be put out of its misery (shown below, right).

On September 16th, 2011, Redditor clifwith1f submitted an image macro to the /r/pics^[5] subreddit, featuring a photograph of a dog dressed in an argyle sweater with the caption "KILL ME" (shown below). Prior to being archived, the post received over 21,000 up votes and 830 comments.

Spread

On September 21st, 2011, FunnyJunk^[3] user cabbager reuploaded the dog image macro, gaining more than 31,000 views and 1,000 up votes in the next two years. On July 7th, 2012, FunnyJunk user pokernight submitted a photo of a crushed cardboard box with holes reminiscent of the eyes and mouth on a face with the caption "Please kill me" (shown below).

On January 3rd, 2013, Reddit calebcop submitted an image macro to the /r/gaming subreddit,^[6] featuring a photo of a twisted balloon sculpture resembling the video game character Solid Snake with the caption "Kill Me" (shown below). Within two months, the post accumulated upwards of 9,500 up votes and 180 comments. On March 5th, the viral content site BuzzFeed^[4] published a compilation of notable examples from the series in a post titled "15 Things That Need To Be Put Out Of Their Misery."

Notable Examples

Search Interest

External References