About

(•_•) / ( •_•)>⌐■-■ / (⌐■_■), also referred to as Puts on Sunglasses or Deal With It, is the ASCII-interpretation of the popular CSI multipane comics featuring Lt. Horatio Caine, the protagonist character in the popular police procedural show Crime Scene Investigation: Miami, or CSI.: Miami. The ASCII version of the meme follows the template:

(•_•)
( •_•)>⌐■-■
(⌐■_■)

Origin

On September 12th, 2002, the American television series CSI: Miami premiered on CBS.^[1] One of the show's many tropes includes Lt. Caine (portrayed by David Caruso), the lead investigator, and his wry, humorous comments about a victim he is investigating (example below). After making such comments, he puts on his sunglasses, which cues the show's theme song, "Won't Get Fooled Again" by The Who, opening with Who singer Roger Daltry's cry, "Yeah!"

Spread

Within a few years of the show's premiere, Caruso's signature jokes and movements became an iconic part of the show that many people began mocking. On November 14th, 2005, ArsTechnica^[2] forum user Frennzy published the thread, "CSI Miami: worst intro lines, evar." In the thread, they published a text-based parody of the one-liners (shown below).

Parodies of the show's opening scenes soon became a regular in pop culture. For example, on February 19th, 2007, actor Jim Carrey appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman.^[3] During the appearance, Carrey impersonated Carusoe. The following day, YouTuber published a clip from the show, which received more than 4.4 million views in less than 15 (shown below, left).

The following year, on April 11th, 2008, YouTuber beepboopvideo posted a supercut of the show's cold opens. The post received more than 3 million views in less than 13 years (shown below, right).

Over time, people translated the action to ASCII Art, creating a text-based version of Caruso putting on sunglasses that follows the template:

(•_•)
( •_•)>⌐■-■
(⌐■_■)

While the exact origin of the code is unknown, on March 15th, 2012, Redditor requested the ASCII in the /r/AskReddit^[4] subreddit (shown below).

Related Memes

The CSI 4-panes

The CSI 4-panes are a series of exploitable comics centered around Lt. Horatio Caine (played by David Caruso), the protagonist character in the popular police procedural show Crime Scene Investigation: Miami. The comics typically begin with Lt. Caine describing a particular situation before putting on or removing his sunglasses, followed by a one-liner uttered in a dramatic manner.

Search interest

External References