About

Loyal But Dangerous is a catchphrase and exploitable meme format based on a viral starter pack image macro that reads, "Middle aged man on Facebook posting quotes about how Loyal but Dangerous he is starter pack" overtop of images of the Joker, Cillian Murphy from Peaky Blinders, Tupac Shakur and Tom Hardy from Legend. The meme was first posted to /r/starterpacks in May 2021 and became increasingly popular over the following years, with future versions of the meme often replacing one of the images in the image macro. The meme is meant as a satirical jab at cringe posts that a Facebook user might make to seem tough.

Origin

On May 1st, 2021, u/mactakeda posted an image to /r/starterpacks^[1] compiling four separate images of Tom Hardy, Cillian Murphy, the Joker and Tupac, titling the post, "Middle aged man on Facebook posting quotes about how Loyal but Dangerous he is starter pack," garnering over 33,000 upvotes in three years. It was reposted to the subreddit^[2] as a singular image macro on May 3rd, garnering over 600 upvotes in the same span of time (shown below, left and right).

Spread

The meme became the subject of edits over the following years. On April 13th, 2023, an edit was posted to /r/starterpacks^[3] by u/hideyourherbs replacing Tupac with an image of Homer Simpson with a mouthful of cigarettes, garnering over 5,100 upvotes in a year (shown below, left).

On May 17th, Facebook^[4] page Dank Memes Club reposted a version of the meme replacing Tupac with Gideon from Elden Ring that gained over 4,900 shares and 1,200 reactions in the same span of time (shown below, right). It was reposted by the shitheadsteve Instagram^[5] account on July 12th, garnering over 80,000 likes in a year.

The "Gideon" meme was originally created by a now-deleted Redditor and posted to /r/starterpacks^[6] on April 17th, 2023, garnering over 3,000 upvotes before it was deleted.

On April 17th, 2024, iFunny^[7] user FamilyManFan420 posted an image macro using the same caption over an image from Family Guy, garnering over 2,800 smiles in three months (shown below). On June 3rd, the Gym Fail Nation Facebook^[8] page reposted the original iteration of the meme, garnering over 24,000 reactions and 4,900 shares in a month. On July 24th, a Redditor asked for more context to the meme on /r/OutOfTheLoop.^[9]

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References