About

Shut Up Brain refers to a drawing of a human skull removing its own brain and telling it to shut up, implying it is thinking about something it does not want to. The drawing has seen considerable use as a reaction image and in image macros since late 2020, used to describe the feeling of having intrusive, embarrassing thoughts.

Origin

On April 28th, 2020, Instagram^[1] user and artist @shagey_ posted a sketch showing a character taking its own brain out (depicted as a circle with eyes), looking at it and telling it to "shut up" (shown below). The image gained over 69,000 likes in a year.

On December 18th, Instagram^[2] user and artist @saraa.stani posted a piece of artwork inspired by the meme showing a detailed human skull pulling its own brain out, looking at it and telling it to shut up, garnering over 2,000 likes in five months (shown below). The artist directly credits @Shagey_ for inspiration.

Spread

On December 26th, 2020, Redditor u/miss_ann_thropic posted the image to /r/me_irl,^[3] garnering over 10,400 upvotes in five months. On January 6th, 2021, Redditor u/TASM2 posted an image macro to /r/wholesomememes^[4] using the image along with top-text reading, "Brain: All of your friends hate you," garnering over 6,100 upvotes in four months (shown below).

On February 3rd, Redditor u/arz1233 posted a new image macro featuring the drawing to /r/dankmemes,^[5] garnering over 87,900 upvotes in three months (shown below, left). The image was reshared by Tumblr^[6] user catchymemes, garnering over 5,000 notes in the same span of time. On February 6th, Redditor u/Yarnipooper posted another image macro with the drawing to /r/dankmemes,^[7] garnering over 29,000 upvotes in three months (shown below, right).

The image continued to inspire new image macros throughout 2021, remaining particularly popular on Reddit. For example, on May 23rd, Redditor u/ttaM9395 posted an image macro featuring the drawing under text reading, "Every market in Africa is a black market," to /r/dankmemes,^[8] garnering over 51,100 upvotes in a day (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References