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Moth Lamp
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About
Moth Lamp refers to jokes about moth insects that are strongly attracted to the glowing light produced by a lamp. The memes saw a surge in popularity after a photo of a giant moth widely circulated within various communities on Reddit during the summer of 2018, spawning image macros which bore similarities to the Cats Wanting Fruit Loops and Brother, May I Have Some Oats series.
Origin
On July 14th, 2018, Redditor No_Reason27[2] posted a picture of a moth outside their window, gaining over 33,000 points (shown below).
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Spread
After the image was posted, jokes about moths being attracted to lamps began appearing in various subreddits. For example, on July 29th, 2018, a comic with the punchline was posted to /r/SurrealMemes, gaining over 11,900 points (shown below, left). On August 9th, Redditor Supernova008 posted the original moth to /r/bossfight, gaining over 300 points (shown below, right). A subreddit for moth-related memes was created and gained over 2,000 subscribers.[3]
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On September 21st, Redditor lbcacm[1] posted a video of a giant moth trapped in his house to /r/WTF, gaining over 30,000 points.
Evil moth from r/WTF
This led to a surge in moth memes, many of which used texts similar to the "Cats Wanting Fruit Loops" and "Brother May I Have Some Oats" memes. For example, Redditor Forky7 posted an example to /r/dankmemes that gained over 6,700 points (shown below, left). A post to /r/memeeconomy by TittenTatten using the Guys Literally Only Want One Thing template gained over 13,000 likes (shown below, right). The surge in moth-related memes led to an inquiry on /r/OutOftheLoop[4] about the memes.
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Spin-offs
In late September, similar memes featuring bats who hunt moths began circulating on Imgur, many of which used a similar format to the moth memes (shown below).
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Meanwhile, similar beaver-themed variations began circulating on /r/me_irl and Instagram, featuring images joking about the semiaquatic rodent's passionate desire for tree logs (shown below).
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Various Examples
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Search Interest
Unavailable
Top Comments
Red123
Sep 27, 2018 at 01:14PM EDT
Red123
Sep 25, 2018 at 01:35PM EDT