Running Officer Earl

About

Running Officer Earl refers to a blurry image of character Earl Devereaux from 2009 animated film Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs running directly at the screen in a determined manner. Starting in April 2019, the image has been circulated online as a reaction in reference to situations in which individuals are being literally or metaphorically chased.

Origin

On September 18th, 2009, animated film Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs premiered in the United States.^[1] In one scene of the film, police officer Earl Devereaux is shown rapidly sprinting towards the main protagonist Flint Lockwood with the intention of apprehending him.

Spread

On March 11th, 2019, iFunny user Sylf posted a close-up image of officer Earl running in the background (shown below).^[6] The post gained over 2,000 likes in one month. On April 1st, 2019, Redditor Cactux3000 posted a close-up image of officer Earl running in the background to /r/WOSH subreddit.^[2] The post gained over 600 upvotes in four days.

On April 2nd, 2019, Redditor CooperG208 posted the image, paired with a humorous caption, to /r/MemeEconomy subreddit (shown below, left),^[3] mentioning that the image originated in /r/dankmemes subreddit.^[4] The post gained over 220 upvotes in three days. On April 3rd, 2019, Redditor 360Weeny posted a meme based on the image to /r/dankmemes subreddit (shown below, right),^[5] where it received over 17,700 upvotes in two days.

In the following days, multiple posts utilizing the image appeared in /r/dankmemes subreddit.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References