About

"On Your Left", also known as Steve Rogers Overtaking Sam Wilson, is an object labeling meme format based on a scene from the 2014 film Captain America: Winter Soldier in which character Steve Rogers / Captain America runs past character Sam Wilson / Falcon. The format achieved popularity on Reddit and Facebook in October 2020.

Origin

On April 4th, 2014, Marvel superhero film Captain America: Winter Soldier premiered in the United States.^[1] In one scene of the film, character Steve Rogers / Captain America, portrayed by Chris Evans, overtakes character Sam Wilson / Falcon, portrayed by Anthony Mackie, during a run, commenting "On your left," as he passes him by. On May 25th, 2019, YouTube^[2] channel TopMovieClips uploaded the video of the scene, where it accumulated over 33 million views in four years (shown below).

On April 22nd, 2014, Tumblr^[3] user jxticeleague posted the earliest found meme based on the scene, labeling Steve Rogers and Sam Wilson with Marvel Comics and DC Comics logos, respectively. The post (shown below) garnered over 129,000 likes and reblogs in nine years.

Spread

Prior to 2020, the scene saw only occasional use in memes, most notably on Tumblr. For example, on August 15th, 2015, Tumblr^[4] user jijarugen posted a 2016 United States Presidential Election meme that gained over 29,900 reblogs and 27,000 likes in eight years (shown below).

In October 2020, the scene achieved popularity on Facebook and Reddit as an object labeling format. Notably, on October 16th, 2020, Redditor cheesytanker posted the earliest discovered viral meme based on the format, which received over 41,000 upvotes in /r/memes^[5] three years (shown below, left; earlier examples likely to exist). On November 6th, 2020, Redditor WeakWrecker posted a meme about the 2020 Nevada Election that received over 19,800 in /r/dankmemes in three years (shown below, right).

The object labeling format maintained online popularity online, primarily on Reddit, in the following years, with several versions going viral in 2021 and 2022.

Various Examples

Templates

Search Interest

External References