About

Mental Gymnastics refers to an exploitable counter-signal meme comparing two groups of people partaking in opposing interests. The format compares the groups' logic behind their preferences, with one group's reasoning being a simple one-step process and the other performing complex "mental gymnastics" to prove their point.

Origin

On December 11th, 2016, Facebook^[1] page Vegan Sidekick posted a cartoon which compared two people explaining their position on veganism. In the first, a person provides a simple reasoning for their choice, while the other providing five elaborate reasons, with the illustration depicting them performing complex "mental gymnastics."

Spread

On January 15th, 2018, an anonymous 4chan^[2] user posted the earliest found edit of the cartoon in thread on the /v/ board, compared with different approaches towards selecting their in-game gender (shown below, left).

In the same thread,^[3] another user responded with a reversed version of the meme (shown below, right).

In the following years, both images received multiple reposts in /v/ and on other 4chan boards. Prior to June 24th, 2019, an anonymous 4chan^[4] user posted the earliest derivative meme based on the format (shown below).

On November 24th, 2020, Redditor^[5] caterpillerman posted a Santa Deniers meme based on the format that gained over 2,900 upvotes in three months (shown below). A same-day repost by Twitter^[6] user @Anna1312__received over 13,400 retweets and 87,700 likes in the same period.

Following the viral spread of the Santa Deniers version, the format saw a surge of popularity online, with multiple viral instances of the format being posted on Instagram and Twitter in the following months.

Various Examples

Template

Search Interest

External References