About

Air Fryer is a type of portable oven that is able to simulate deep-frying food without the use of hot oil. In meme culture, air fryers have been parodied in numerous meme templates due to the zealotry of their owners.

History

The "Airfryer" was introduced by Philips in 2010.^[1] It is able to coat food in a thin layer of oil then heat to 392º F in order to achieve the browning effect that comes from traditional frying methods. As a result, fried items like chips, fries, chicken, etc. could be easily fried using up to 80% less oil. After Philips launched the Airfryer, the generic term "air fryer" came to be used for similar products from other companies.

Online Presence

Over the course of the 2010s, air fryers grew more popular in online culture, with their owners consistently praising the product and its functions. The subreddit /r/airfryer^[2] launched on September 24th, 2014, and gained over 56,000 subscribers in six and a half years. However, memes about air fryers began growing more popular in 2020. It is theorized that this is due to more people using air fryers in 2020 as a result of being inside more often due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. ^[3] On January 14th, 2020, the Instagram account @airfryerguy^[4] launched, featuring an Australian man showing various foods that could be cooked in an air fryer. The account gained over 181,000 subscribers in a year and a half (example video shown below).

Memes about air fryers grew more prevalent in the latter half of 2020. On December 1st, 2020, Redditor vodkacola1719 posted a meme about air fryer owners to /r/airfryer,^[5] gaining over 760 points (shown below, left). On December 13th, Redditor wolfy189 posted a My Parents At 29 meme about air fryers to /r/memes,^[6] gaining over 4,000 points (shown below, right).

The spread of air fryer memes led to collections on KnowYourMeme^[7] and SomeECards.^[8]

Search Interest

External References