About

Man refers to an image macro of a horse on a beach staring at the water, accompanied by the caption "MAN." It is typically used in an existential or melancholy manner. It is also sometimes used as a redraw concept for various fictional characters.

Origin

On April 20th, 2020, Reddit^[1] user an__dy uploaded the earliest known use of the image, of a horse on the beach with text written "MAN," to a thread titled "pain but without the 1993" to the /r/playboicarti subreddit. The thread received more than 1,400 upvotes in three years (shown below).

Spread

The image was popularized in 2020 with many variations of the image featuring other characters in the same pose. For example, on June 17th, 2020, Twitter^[2] user @KrusperAnims uploaded an image using the character Mario. The tweet received more than 2,400 retweets and 14,300 likes in three years (shown below, left). On September 18th, 2020, Twitter^[3] user @MarioIsBroken uploaded a similar image that received more than 5,100 retweets and 25,200 likes in three years (shown below, right).

On November 11th, 2022, the official YouTube^[3] channel for Sonic the Hedgehog uploaded a video about Sonic Frontiers, and at the 5:29 minute mark, Sonic is seen looking to the sunset, and the text "MAN" appears. The video received more than 178,000 views in three months (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References