About

Mom Counted To Zero is a cliché and catchphrase referenced in memes about when a mother counts down to zero when trying to make her child do or not do something. It was first referenced in memes around 2020 on iFunny, then spreading to Reddit's /r/OkBuddyRetard, Instagram and YouTube in 2022. Most show an apocalyptic event or catastrophe that happens as a result of the mom reaching zero. The meme shares similarities to the What Happened To Him? format.

Origin

On March 9th, 2020, iFunnier^[1] HistoricalMemes posted the earliest known example, a "Come. This Is No Place To Die" Black Panther meme that referenced sleep paralysis demons "opening a portal to a new world" once the character's mom counted down to zero. The meme received roughly 80,100 smiles in two years (shown below).

Later in the day on March 9th, 2020, Redditor UltraNeGaborel reposted the aforementioned meme to /r/dankmemes,^[2] earning roughly 88,900 upvotes in two years.

Spread

On April 14th, 2020, the Instagram^[3] page slattynigga posted a video that followed the What Happened To Him? format by captioning a slideshow of Dead Baby Voldemort and other anime screencaps like ones from Attack on Titan with, "Me: Ayo?! Wtf happened Too Him? / 'He Let His Mom Count To Zero.'" Over the course of two years, the post received roughly 14,800 views and 2,500 likes (shown below). Slattynigga also parallel-posted the meme to Twitter ^[4] on April 14th, 2020, earning over 300 views and 20 likes.

Going into 2021, the cliché was increasingly referenced in memes and online humor. For instance, on February 25th, 2021, Redditor oti95 posted a meme to /r/OkBuddyRetard^[5] that captioned an image of nuclear fallout with Impact font reading, "It's Over / Mom Counted To Zero." The meme received roughly 35,300 upvotes in one year (shown below).

On March 31st, 2021, the aforementioned meme was reposted to iFunny by iFunnier^[6] GG_EZZ, who received roughly 3,500 smiles over the course of one year.

In late 2021 and early 2022, the idea of a mom counting down to zero was referenced in multiple video memes on YouTube. This was started by YouTuber^[7] Ernesto Folliero on November 22nd, 2021, who posted a video with Impact font layered over an apocalypse scene from Terminator 2. It earned roughly 1,400 views in seven months (shown below, left). On March 7th, 2022, YouTuber^[8] Luke Correia posted his own video, being a voiceover of Redditor^[5] oti95's meme. It earned roughly 450,300 views and 48,000 likes in three months (shown below, right).

Specifically, Luke Correia's video inspired many YouTubers to embed the cliché into their own meme content carrying into June 2022.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References