About

She Was Close to Giving Up is a name given to an exploitable meme based on a metaphorical three-panel comic in which a young man is seen digging through a brick wall to reach his loved one and is about to give up, with the third panel revealing an unexpected turn of events in which the wall is violently torn down. Edits of the original comic started circulating in early 2018, with the format gaining widespread virality in December 2023. The format shares many similarities with the Digging for Diamonds meme.

Origin

Prior to February 9th, 2018, an unknown artist posted a three-panel comic in which a young man stops working on breaking through a brick wall to reach his romantic interest, drops his pickaxe and walks away. The last panel of the webcomic shows the girl he stopped trying to get to being approached by several other men.

On May 25th, 2019, Facebook^[1] page Khmer Like posted the earliest found repost of the comic (shown below) with the phrase (in Khmer), "Even if you try, it doesn't mean anything to them."

On February 9th, 2018, Pikabu^[2] user Loonyloon posted the earliest found edit of the comic, showing the boy turning around and charging at the wall, breaking it so violently that it sends the girl flying (author of the edit unknown). The post (shown below) gained over 20 upvotes on the site in seven years.

Spread

While the comic did not achieve viral popularity until December 2023, several of its early edits were circulated online in the early 2020s.

For example, on June 23rd, 2021, Redditor waifusenpaix reposted a Naruto meme based on the format that gained over 25,000 upvotes in the /r/memes^[3] subreddit in four years (shown below).

On November 29th, 2023, the Facebook^[4] page SaiyanGirl reposted an edit in which the last panel was replaced with Goku from Dragon Ball performing a flying kick. The post received over 74,000 reactions and 1,600 shares in one year. On December 2nd, X^[5] user @Extralongdokkan reposted the edit, with their post garnering over 1,800 reposts and 16,000 likes in the same period.

The post inspired more memes based on the format as more users posted edits of the comic in early 2023, usually altering the last panel to reference various media.

For example, on December 7th, 2023, the X^[6] account @MarioRPGCentral posted a Mario & Luigi edit that gained over 2,100 reposts and 13,000 likes in one year (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References