About

The Fridge Protects the Snacks or It's Always the Fridge Protecting the Snacks is a catchphrase referring to an overprotective, overweight friend (the fridge) of a woman who a man is hitting on (the snacks), essentially meaning the overweight friend always gets in the way of the man's advances on the more arguably attractive woman. The phrase has been used online since as early as November 2022 on TikTok, becoming increasingly popular over the years, especially among pickup artist and manosphere influencers.

Origin

On November 23rd, 2022, TikToker^[1] @yaoet reuploaded a video of a TikToker dancing over the caption "whatever you do don't bring the friend that's over protective of you…," followed by her friend, who appears to be overweight, dancing onto the screen. The video's description reads, "Nah bro we all know the fridge protects the snacks," garnering over 120,000 views in two years. This is the earliest known example of the phrase's use, although it may not be the true first use of the phrase.

Spread

The phrase became increasingly popular over the following years. On November 24th, 2022, TikToker^[2] @deo/71696 posted a video using it in the description, garnering over 40,000 likes in two years. On December 6th, a video meme was posted to /r/discordVideos^[3] titled "The fridge protects the snack 💪," garnering over 1,500 upvotes in two years.

On May 13th, 2023, TikToker^[4] @heftynemanja posted a video of an overprotective friend stopping a man-on-the-street interviewer from hitting on a woman, adding a reaction meme using the phrase to the end, garnering over 50,000 views in a year.

On May 15th, 2023, u/Jesse_Killz posted a meme to /r/dankmemes^[5] showing a fat Yoshi protecting a woman at the bar, titling the post, "The fridge protects the snacks," garnering over 8,300 upvotes in a year.

On September 23rd, 2024, TikToker^[6] @bklayman posted a video where he attempts to hit on a girl only for her friend to swoop in and stop him. In the video, he yells at the woman, "It's always the fridge that's protecting the snacks," garnering over 3 million views in three months.

On December 18th, TikToker^[7] @tobyflexx posted a video in which he tries to hit on a woman but her overprotective friend steps in, writing in the description, "The fridge was out of cotnrol then fot humbled by baddie," garnering over 4 million views in two days. It was reposted by X^[8] user @FearedBuck on December 20th, writing, "it’s always the fridge protecting the snacks 😒," garnering over 40,000 likes in under a day.

On June 22nd, 2025, X^[9] user @ClownWorld_ posted a seemingly AI-generated comic that depicts an example of the phrase "the fridge protects the snacks," captioning the post, "Every time 🤦‍♂️," garnering over 287,000 likes in a day.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References