Serotonin Machine

About

Serotonin Machine refers to a series of memes where a pet or animal, like a cat, is shown over a blue background alongside the caption "serotonin machine," suggesting the animal gives the poster serotonin. The original meme was posted on Tumblr in early 2019 and spread over the following years as people applied new animals and characters to the format.

Origin

On February 16th, 2019, Tumblr^[1] user blasphemousonmain posted an image of a sleeping cat over a blue background, captioned, "serotonin machine," garnering over 125,000 notes in four years (shown below).

Spread

The format spread over the following years as people attached other characters and animals over similar backgrounds. On April 18th, 2019, Twitter^[2] user @poorlycatdraw reposted the original meme, garnering over 27,000 likes in four years. On January 22nd, 2020, Instagram^[3] user freegoblinpics posted a version of the meme with a new cat, garnering over 3,300 likes in three years (shown below, left). On July 7th, 2021, Instagram^[4] user opossumthings posted a version with a possum, which was reposted on July 31st by Instagram^[5] user possum.vibes, garnering over 5,800 likes in two years (shown below, right).

On June 7th, 2022, Twitter^[6] user @RussianMemesLtd posted a version of the meme that gained over 6,300 likes in 10 months. On November 27th, Instagram^[7] user rartcattos posted a version of the meme that gained over 41,800 likes in five months. On April 24th, 2023, Tumblr^[8] user rainyfroggy posted a version of the meme using the Pokemon Charjabug, garnering around 40 notes in under 12 hours (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References