About

That Damn Smile refers to a series of four-panel exploitable images based a popular scene from the Netflix series 13 Reasons Why. In the meme, the first, third and fourth panels, featuring screenshots and captions from the series, always remain the same, while the second panel is a different character, subverting the sincerity of the scene.

Origin

On March 31st, 2017, Netflix released all 13 episodes of the teen drama 13 Reasons Why. In episode one (video below), the character Hannah Baker sees the character Justin Foley, to whom she is attracted, and her narration says "So you see, that's where the trouble began. That smile. That damn smile."
The earliest example of the moment being used in a meme comes from Instagram user @joblessmarwadi. On May 25th, 2017, he posted three screenshots from the scene, replacing the shot of Justin with different man smiling.^[1] As of July 2017, the post has received more than 900 likes.

Spread

That day, the meme account Spicy Urdu Memes shared two variations of the meme. While the first (shown below, left) received more 40 reactions and one share, the second received more than 198 reactions and 300 shares.^[4]

Over the next few days, a variation of the meme (shown below), which features a screenshot from the viral video "Ye Bik Gayi Hai Gormint," began appearing on several subreddits, including /r/IndianPeopleFacebook^[2] and /r/4panelcringe.^[3]

On May 28th, Redditor NegativeKarmaSniifer^[6] posted the template for the meme on the /r/13ReasonsWhy subreddit. The post received mroe than 240 points (93% upvoted).

On June 13th, Instagram user batmanskwad posted a version of the meme with the character The Joker from the 2008 Batman film The Dark Knight. Within a month, the post received more than 4,200 likes.

On July 5th, Redditor Liven_Bravo^[5] posted the meme on the subreddit /r/MemeEconomy, where it received more than 140 points (43% upvoted).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References