About

Officer I Swear They Were Talking To Me is a catchphrase often used in image macros featuring ultra-realistic versions of popular anthropomorphic cartoon characters paired with the caption, "Officer I swear they were talking to me." The meme started to go viral in April 2024 on TikTok, iFunny, Facebook and Instagram, featuring other notable anthropomorphic characters from movies and cartoons.

Origin

The earliest known post of the "officer I swear they were talking to me" was uploaded on April 6th, 2024, by the Instagram^[1] meme page @shneeby. The post (shown below) features a photoshopped image from The Annoying Orange web series in which all the faces were removed from the fruits, accompanied by the macro "officer I swear they were talking to me," which amassed over 2,100 likes in a month.

Spread

Shortly after the Instagram post went viral, variations of the meme featuring other realistic anthropomorphic cartoon characters started to be shared on TikTok and Facebook. For instance, on April 7th, 2024, TikTok^[2] user @dabigfeet uploaded a version of the meme featuring a bluebird and a raccoon similar to the Regular Show characters (shown below, left). The post amassed roughly 4,900 plays and 238 likes in a month.

On April 28th, TikTok^[3] user @tyfilims posted a version of the meme featuring Five Nights at Freddy's (shown below, right), which received more than 24,000 plays and 4,600 likes in two weeks.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References