About

"Kowalski, Analysis" is a catchphrase said by the leader of the Penguins of Madagascar, Skipper. It is spoken to his subordinate, Kowalski, who is known as the brains of the group. In memes, the picture is used primarily as a reaction image implying a request for additional information or analysis, but it has also seen use as a punchline to a snowclone format.

Origin

The phrase itself comes from the movie Penguins Of Madagascar that came out on November 26th, 2014. The line in the movie is said after the penguins have been captured and locked up early in the film. A clip of the scene was posted to YouTube^[1] on the channel More Android, where it received 5,000 views in one year (shown below).

The meme image of Skipper that has the text, however, isn't the same as the scene that the phrase comes from. This image comes from the introduction and theme song sequence for The Penguins of Madagascar animated TV series (seen below).

The first instance of combining the text with the image was done on the upload to the /r/dankmemes^[2] subreddit by Redditor /u/Diamorphine330ml on October 22nd, 2018. The post^[2] received 54,700 upvotes and 264 comments in two years (shown below).

Spread

In early posts, Kowalski, Analysis was used with the expression of Skipper being a reaction to text or an image placed above him. But afterward, the phrase itself was most commonly used with a little background photoshopped for context.

This is best seen in the post by a now-deleted Redditor to the /r/dankmemes^[3] subreddit, where Skipper has glowing eyes as he asks Kowalski for an analysis of volleyball booty, which gained 4,200 likes in two years (shown below).

Various Examples

Template

Search Interest

External References