About

Smiling Lizard Couple refers to a photograph of a gecko and a chameleon sitting side-by-side and looking forward, smiling. The photo became the subject of image macros typically comparing them to a happy older couple in various jokes.

Origin

In early June of 2017, emmatheward uploaded an image of her lizards Stimpy and Olive to Tumblr^[1] alongside the caption, "Stimpy and Olive not being camera shy." (Shown below.) The original image has since been deleted from emmatheward's blog, but found success through prior reblogs. The post has collected over 219,300 notes since December 14th, 2020.

Spread

The image found success on Tumblr as users began reblogging it, many adding their own captions for comedic effect. On June 20th, 2017, Tumblr blog Lizards Enjoying Life^[2] reblogged the image. On August 15th, lackyannie reblogged^[3] the post, adding the caption, "they look like a couple that defied all the odds to be together" (shown below). A screenshot featuring her reblog note ganered over 127,000 views and 2,000 upvotes in a September 27th reupload to Imgur.^[4]

Internet users began using the photograph in various image macros as early as July of that year. On July 12th, toptree uploaded an image macro featuring using the photo and top text "When you look back at your friends and they ask you if you're feeling it yet" to Tumblr (shown below, left). The image has since been deleted. On August 23rd, 9GAG posted an image macro featuring the lizards to their official Twitter^[5] page, garnering over 790 retweets and 2,200 likes in over 3 years (shown below, right).

On September 24th, SpittingoutDemons posted the image to /r/photoshopbattles,^[6] garnering 973 upvotes and 7 submissions in 3 years (example shown below, left). On November 24th of the same year, Twitter user broazay uploaded the image to Twitter^[7] along with the caption, "when ur telling ur grandparents about ur job and they have no clue what ur talking bout but they're supportive" making reference to the proud expression on the lizards' faces, garnering over 82,000 likes and 26,000 retweets in 3 years (shown below, right).

On February On January 12th, 2020, Raider2187 uploaded an image macro to Imgur^[8] featuring the smiling lizards, garnering over 90,000 views and 1,200 upvotes in 11 months (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

N/A

External References