The Hulk Crying

About

The Hulk Crying is an exploitable image macro meme using an image of the Hulk crying from Incredible Hulks issue 616. The meme first appeared online as early as June 2019 and was first popularized among Spanish speakers, becoming increasingly prevalent among English-speaking web users throughout the 2020s. The meme is often used to convey a sense of sadness over something you've grown out of, forgotten or otherwise moved on from.

Origin

While the earliest version of the "Hulk Crying" meme is unconfirmed, the earliest known example was posted by X^[1] user @jeffocondoblef on June 27th, 2019, garnering over 6,300 likes in five years (shown below, left). The meme, which is in Spanish, reads what roughly translates to, "Mom, is there cake left?"

The image of the Hulk crying originates from Incredible Hulks issue 616, published on November 10th, 2010 (shown below, right).^[2]

Spread

The meme continued to spread throughout the 2020s among both Spanish and English-speaking social media users. On April 7th, 2020, X^[3] user @SoyFedelobo posted a version of the meme that translates to, "I laughed at a TikTok video," garnering over 6,000 likes in four years (shown below, left).

On October 10th, 2021, Redditor u/CompaBladi420 posted a meme to /r/weezer^[4] in which the Hulk cries about no longer listening to Weezer, garnering over 700 upvotes in three years (shown below, right).

On May 22nd, 2023, a meme was posted to the subreddit /r/MemePiece^[5] referencing One Piece using the Hulk Crying format, garnering over 2,800 upvotes in a year (shown below, left). On March 20th, 2024, Redditor u/FishyFries2_0 posted a meme to /r/Steam^[6] using the format about waiting on pending funds to buy a game on sale, garnering over 2,700 upvotes in four months (shown below, right).

On July 2nd, 2024, X^[7] user @sinnoh_CEO posted a version of the meme about forgetting the names of Pokemon as you get older, garnering over 176,000 likes in a day (shown below). The meme was reposted to /r/animeindian^[8] that day, garnering over 700 upvotes in the same span of time.

Various Examples

Template

Search Interest

External References