About

Love Is in the Air? Wrong is a catchphrase used in a series of recaption memes based on an image macro of The Big Bang Theory character Sheldon Cooper (portrayed by Jim Parsons) paired with a misattributed joke quote. In the memes, the latter part of the phrase is humorously recaptioned.

Origin

Prior to December 15th, 2012, an unknown user or website posted an image macro of The Big Bang Theory character Sheldon Cooper captioned with a misattributed line, "Love is in the air? Wrong. Nitrogen, oxygen and carbon dioxide are in the air." On December 15th, 2012, Twitter^[1] user @Astropartigirl made the earliest found repost of the macro (shown below).

Spread

In the following years, this and other versions of the macro were shared online on Facebook, Instagram and other websites. For example, on February 14th, 2015, Instagram^[2] user katieleclerc posted a version of the macro that gained over 9,000 likes in eight years (shown below, left). On March 18th, 2020, Redditor MicrowaveBurrito2568 posted the macro in the /r/ComedyCemetery^[3] subreddit, where it gained over 660 upvotes in three years.

On September 14th, 2021, Redditor smokinpeteria posted the earliest found recaption meme based on a version of the macro, a Schizopost that gained over 370 upvotes in the /r/okbuddyretard^[4] subreddit in one year (authorship unconfirmed; shown below, right).

On November 7th, 2021, iFunny^[5] user Playstation2_Hagrid posted the earliest derivative meme exploring the format further, a meme about Microplastics that gained over 250 smiles in one year (shown below, left).

In June 2022, a version of the meme captioned, "Love is in the air? Wrong! Gas leak," went viral across all major social media websites. The earliest found post of the macro was made by Redditor Del_Nailo on April 30th, 2022, in the /r/676^[6] subreddit, where it gained over 770 upvotes in one year (authorship unconfirmed; shown below, right).

On June 24th, 2022, voice actor Luke Correia posted a voiced version of the meme that gained over 570,000 views on YouTube^[7] and 15,700 views on Twitter^[8] in eight months (shown below).

Related Memes

Owo?? Choco??

Owo?? Choco??, often followed by the punchline Wrong! Sulfuric Acid!, refers to a series of memes based on a panel from the Boyfriends webcomic in which a young man comments "Owo?? Choco??" to hot chocolate his roommate brings him. The panel first went viral in January 2022, regaining popularity in October 2022 with "sulfuric acid" parodies.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References