Locked-In Fish With a Human Face

About

Locked-In Fish With a Human Face refers to an AI-generated image of a white-and-brown fish with a human face. Starting in December 2023, the image has been used as source material for caption memes, most notably for various When You Gotta Lock In jokes and memes about being distressed.

Origin

On August 14th, 2023, Redditor Bubzzzzzzzzlol posted an AI-generated image of a bizarre-looking fish with a human face to the /r/uncannyvalley^[1] subreddit (original author unknown, shown below). The post received over 270 upvotes in the subreddit in eight months.

On December 13th, 2023, X^[2] / Twitter user @bobbylikesbeers posted an image caption meme based on the image, captioning it with a drunk driving joke. The post (shown below) received over 4,500 reposts and 47,000 likes in four months.

Spread

In the following days, the image was used for more image caption memes on X / Twitter and Reddit. For example, on December 13th, 2023, Redditor NatterLight posted a caption meme in the /r/poker^[3] subreddit, gaining over 210 upvotes in four months (shown below, left). On December 18th, X^[4] user @AQUAKTTY posted a meme that garnered over 2,400 reposts and 13,000 likes in the same period (shown below, right).

The image saw more instances of viral use in the early months of 2024. For example, on March 12th, 2024, X^[5] user @obvizz captioned the image, "when my body dysmorphia is on 100 I think I look like this," with the post gaining over 8,200 reposts and 81,000 likes in six weeks (shown below).

Additionally, the image also saw use as a reaction. ^[6]

Various Examples

Template

Search Interest

External References