Log Off Lisa Simpson

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About

Log Off Lisa Simpson is an image macro meme featuring Lisa Simpson and her mom, Marge Simpson, in front of the family computer in The Simpsons. Marge, standing over Lisa at the computer, has her hand placed on her daughter’s shoulder, and the creator adds some text that usually includes an instruction to “go ahead and log off for me.”

Origin

This viral variation of Lisa Simpson at her computer began at the end of August 2019. DeAnthony James reposted an image grab to Facebook with a new caption: “When you supposed to be doing work on the computer but you playing a game and the teacher sneak up behind you and say ‘Go ahead and log off for me.’”^[3] The post was shared over 65,000 times, and spread to other platforms like twitter.

The very next day, twitter user @Rodiculous posted the same image and caption, and it became viral on that platform as well (over 10,000 likes). ^[9]

Precursor

The Simpsons family are an existing meme subculture or memeplex, and Lisa Simpson is a feature in many memes and reaction image macros already.

On October 31st, 2013, a Chilean blog/meme stash called “Futu Bandera” posted the image grab from The Simpsons with the overlaid caption “It’s Time To Stop Posting.” ^[1]

For three years, the image bounced around with that caption or a variation (no more internet for you, etc), usually as a reply with an implication that content creators have said/done “enough.”

The same image capture was posted to imgur and gained virality in 2016 with a new caption: “When you show your mom a video on instagram and she ask who it is like you supposed to know.” ^[2] The image grab then continued around the web with varying captions about showing your mom or an adult something on the internet as a child.

Spread

The meme now spreads in a variety of different contexts, usually through replies, with the recurring suggestion to “go ahead and log off for me.” In addition to many reposts of the original context, a teacher catching a student using the internet how/when they shouldn’t be, it also appears as a response to anyone perceived as using the internet in a way they “shouldn’t be.” This includes reacting to strange, unpopular, and usually problematic/harmful content.

In this example^[4], the meme gets more specific by addressing one online games website, Miniclip.com. In another example^[5], it’s used as a reply to discourage racist and homophobic content.

Various Examples

The meme becomes especially popular in the replies of noteworthy content. When Nicki Minaj began publicly blasting Meek Mill on twitter in early February 2020, Log Off Lisa Simpson appeared in several replies and gained thousands of likes in responses to Nicki’s tweets^[6] ^[7] . The next examples include the “teacher” noticing a student playing music out loud^[8] and a student group using the meme^[10] as a promotion to sell tickets.