About

Smug Cheerleader refers to a series of image macros in which users caption a picture of a cheerleader with a close-mouthed smile. Online, people describe this as a "petty" look and caption it accordingly.

Origin

On January 16th, 2018, YouTuber ^[1] Cheer Extreme published a video entitled "Senior Elite SOH 2018 Backstage, Performance & Awards." At two minutes and 23 seconds, a cheerleader named Ryan Cummings makes the "smug" smile at the end of a routine.^[5] Within two weeks, the video (shown below) received more than 196,000 views.

Spread

That day, people began posting the image on Twitter. Twitter^[2] user @SEtotheleft posted a five-second clip of the moment and the caption "big mood." The post (shown below) received more than 39.7 million views, 77,000 retweets and 165,000 likes in two weeks.

Several days later, on January 20th, Twitter user @dailyjoshifer tweeted^[3] the video with the caption "white feminists after drawing a uterus on a poster." The post (shown below, center) receied more than 40,000 retweets and 149,000 likes in nine days.

Two days later, Twitter^[4] user @youthrillme tweeted, "Gym twitter after making dry chicken and brown rice for dinner for the 6th time this week." The post (shown below, right) received more than 21,000 retweets and 82,000 likes in one week.

On January 27th, Twitter^[6] user @SEtotheleft posted a followup tweet in the form of another shot of Cummings smiling and flicking her head. They captioned the tweet (shown below) "Behold, our next supreme." The post received more than 36 retweets and 230 likes in two days.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References