About

Shrek Meme Face or Shrek Oop Face is a reaction image and exploitable meme format of the character Shrek doing a surprised or inquisitive facial gesture in which he's looking to the side with his lips firmly together in a straight line. The still image and clips of the scene, taken from the original movie, have been used online since early 2014, inspiring the Shrek Fedora meme and mostly being shared as a reaction to controversial opinions on social media.

Origin

In the film Shrek, released May 18th, 2001, Shrek is seen talking to Fiona after rescuing her when she offers him and Donkey a meal, saying, "They have a big day ahead." Shrek then reacts somewhat surprised by her gesture, glancing over at Donkey as if saying "hmmm" (scene shown below).^[1]

The earliest known usage of the scene as a reaction image was uploaded by FunnyJunk^[2] forum user siksteen on March 7th, 2014, during an interaction with other followers, which amassed over 10 likes in a decade (seen below).

Spread

Shrek's humorous-looking face was steadily popularized as a reaction image and exploitable meme over the following decade, often being used to express an array of emotions such as suspicion, surprise, secrecy and many others.

For example, on May 3rd, 2020, Redditor^[3] The_lost_monk_ used the Shrek Oop Face meme paired with text describing a child asking someone if they are winning the game, which is replied to with, "Me after committing mass genocide on GTA." The post (seen below, left) amassed more than 10 upvotes in four years. On April 16th, 2022, Redditor^[4] Ai2ar uploaded a higher quality version of the meme (seen below, right), amassing over 490 upvotes and six comments in two years.

The meme also sparked some video posts on TikTok, like user @s0ndber's^[5] post from November 22nd, 2023, showing the scene in which Shrek does the funny face (seen below, left), amassing more than 37,000 plays and 900 likes in a year. On July 25th, TikTok^[6] user @rafa_martinez0297 posted an edit of the same scene (seen below, right), amassing over 2 million plays and 430,000 likes in a year.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References