About

Seal of Approval, also known as Satisfied Seal, is an advice animal image macro series featuring a close-up photograph of a seal with captions containing anecdotes about various gratifying experiences.

Origin

On August 18th, 2007, Flickr^[1] user Rick van Duivenboden uploaded a photograph of a Weddell seal at the Ecomare nature center on the island Texel in the Netherlands (shown below). On November 16th, 2014, Redditor Mictlantecuhtli submitted the photograph to /r/pics in a post titled "This is the most satisfied seal I've ever seen," to which the top voted comment replied "that is a seal of approval." Prior to being archived, the post gathered upwards of 4,600 votes (93% upvoted) and 240 comments.

Spread

The same day, Redditor boredengineer89 posted an image macro featuring the photograph with the caption "Standing naked over the bathroom vent / with the heat on" (shown below). Before the post was archived, it gained over 4,100 votes (95% upvoted) and 240 comments on the /r/AdviceAnimals^[3] subreddit. On December 11th, Redditor ButterflyPaun submitted a Seal of Approval image macro about a satisfying bowel movement to /r/AdviceAnimals,^[4] garnering more than 3,700 votes (86% upvoted) and 430 comments before it was archived (shown below, right).

On August 11th, 2015, Redditor JeffKnol posted an image macro expressing appreciation for a generous roommate to /r/AdviceAnimals,^[5] receiving upwards of 7,700 votes (96% upvoted) and 640 comments in three months (shown below, left). On August 25th, Redditor BigTom1776 posted a Seal of Approval expressing satisfaction with arresting a man after a road rage incident (shown below, right). In two months, the post garnered over 7,800 votes (95% upvoted) and 1,600 comments on /r/AdviceAnimals.^[6]

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References