About

Rodrick Holding a Camera or the Rodrick Camera Meme is a reaction meme and series of image macros using a scene from Diary of a Wimpy Kid in which the character Rodrick (played by actor Devon Bostick), from the perspective of his brother Greg (Zachary Gordon) playing a tree on-stage, is seen pointing and smiling at his video camera as he records the school play, suggesting he will use the footage for a nefarious purpose. The movie was released in 2010, and the scene was first used as a meme as early as March 2025. As a meme, it is often used alongside captions about friends recording embarrassing footage of you. It is also sometimes used as an exploitable in edits that place Rodrick with the camcorder in different scenes.

Origin

On March 19th, 2010, the movie Diary of a Wimpy Kid was released. In one scene, the protagonist Greg Heffley plays a tree during the school's production of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. His older brother Rodrick is seen, from the perspective of Greg, in the audience recording, mouthing something and pointing at the camera, the joke being that the footage will be used to embarrass Greg in the future.

On January 26th, 2025, Tenor^[1] user jooooobaaaat posted a GIF of the scene from the film featuring Rodrick with the video camera.

On March 26th, 2025, TikToker^[2] @alfieyb09 posted a meme using the scene alongside the caption, "That one bro when recording you doing the slightest thing embarrassing (I'm they one bro)," garnering over 287,000 views in a year. This is the earliest known version of the meme.

Spread

The Rodrick Camera meme spread throughout the second half of 2025 on sites including TikTok, Instagram Reels and Reddit.

On April 7th, 2025, Redditor Mr_Santa-Claus made a post on the /r/MemeTemplatesOfficial^[3] subreddit asking for the video and drawing the scene.

On May 20th, TikToker^[4] @ariianaskitty posted a POV meme using the scene alongside the caption, "POV: that one friend filming everything that is slightly embarrassing to you," garnering over 9.8 million views in 10 months.

On June 8th, 2025, Instagram^[5] user jvbanditzz posted a version of the meme captioned, "How my mom looks at me to make sure I know she recorded me striking out," garnering over 48,500 likes in eight months.

On August 3rd, Instagram^[6] user aura_farm.c0m posted a version of the meme that gained over 68,000 likes in six months.

On December 9th, 2025, TikToker^[7] @ronaldinhothegoat_r10 posted a video where he recreates the Rodrick camera meme while his brother plays an instrument at a school performance, garnering over 1.8 million views in three months.

Various Examples

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Search Interest

External References