About

Taking Scantron Test is a phrasal template in which participants mimic the outline and format of multiple-choice, fill-in-the-letter tests to serve as the punchline to a joke about who is taking the test. The format of the meme follows this template:

[X] Taking Scantron Test

A B C D E
1. [▫️] [▫️] [▫️] [▪️] [▫️]
2. [▫️] [▫️] [▫️] [▪️] [▫️]
3. [▫️] [▫️] [▫️] [▪️] [▫️]
4. [▫️] [▫️] [▫️] [▪️] [▫️]
5. [▫️] [▫️] [▫️] [▪️] [▫️]

Origin

On March 21st, 2019, Twitter ^[1] user @Ygrene tweeted a parody of a scantron exam that read "[dolphin taking scantron test]." In the answer part of the joke, the only letter filled in is the letter "e," joking the sound a dolphin makes. The post received more than 73,000 retweets and 400,000 likes in 24 hours (shown below).

Precursor

Prior to the format's emergence, others have made jokes about scantron tests on Twitter, with the earliest appearing on February 27th, 2012 (shown below, left).^[2] These jokes, typically, reacted to the phenomenon of answers appearing in alphabetical order (examples below).

Spread

Following the post, others began posting jokes using the format. These jokes took on various other memes and online jokes. On March 22nd, Twitter^[3] user @FactsDevito posted a variation of the Danny Devito egg meme. The post received more than 2,000 retweets and 21,000 likes in three days (shown below, left). Twitter^[4] user @hentai__police tweeted, "me, no hand-eye coordination, taking a scantron exam." The post received more than 1,500 retweets and 12,000 likes in three days (shown below, center). Twitter^[5] user @hunter6_ tweeted, "An unvaccinated child taking a scantron test." The filled-in boxes read, "D E A D." The post received more than 25,000 retweets and 141,000 likes in three days (shown below, right).

Several media outlets covered the meme, including Mashable, ^[6] The Daily Dot ^[7] and more.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References