About

"Shit's on fire yo" is an image of a young man pointing to a blaze far out into the distance with the caption "shit's on fire yo" depicting that the young man is stating the obvious in a similar fashion as to Captain Obvious. The image is usually used in conjunction to a picture with a catastrophe or accident shown in the background, which sets something ablaze. Aside from being used as a reaction image, the painting has been parodied and recreated with other fictional characters.

Origin

The original painting is known as "Portrait Of A Young Man". Not to be confused with the more popular "Portrait of The Artist As a Young Man" by renaissance painter Raphael, the painting in question was painted by Italian artist Alessandro Allori in 1561. The painting is currently exhibited in the Ashmolean Museum of Oxford (England).^[1]

The earliest known instance of the painting being associated with a caption was uploaded on 2011 at WeKnowMemes.^[3]

Spread

The same image was uploaded at Imgur by the user jnsbwm on 2012. The image received 1299 points, as well as 3,785,152 views^[2].

Once the picture reached Reddit, then it started to gain popularity. The Reddit users liked the image so much that a two part comment series has been based around it. They are known as "shit's on fire yo", and "Shit's on fire, yo: Part Duex".

Various Examples

Search Interest

External Reference

^[1] Wikipedia – Alessandro Allori

^[2] Imgur – shits on fire yo

^[3] Reddit – Reddit Comments pt.1

^[4] Reddit – Reddit Comments pt.2