The "You Missed the Point by Idolizing Them" Starter Pack

About

The "You Missed the Point by Idolizing Them" Starter Pack refers to an exploitable starter pack template that labels literally me guys and other sigma male characters as bad or evil despite many internet users "idolizing" them in memes. The original was posted to Reddit in late 2019 and spread to multiple social media platforms in the early 2020s. The characters and image macros featured in the template became more nonsensical over time.

Origin

On December 30th, 2019, Redditor /u/the_prion posted a meme to /r/starterpacks^[1] that was the first known "you missed the point by idolizing them" starter pack. It included multiple literally me characters like Walter White, Rick Sanchez, Patrick Bateman, Don Draper and Joaquin Phoenix as Joker, among others. Over the course of three years, the post received roughly 100,000 upvotes (shown below).

Spread

The meme spread to multiple platforms in the month that followed, surfacing in reposts on Facebook ^[2] and Instagram. ^[3] On December 31st, 2019, the Facebook^[4] page PAMU: Philosophy Anti-Marginalisation Union posted the first known re-edit of the template, placing philosophers like Hegel as the characters. The post gained over 150 reactions in three years (shown below, left). On January 11th, 2020, Instagram^[5] user @blue0nyx posted a more free association re-edit of the meme, gaining over 60 likes in three years (shown below, right).

Going into the early 2020s, the template gained further, viral usage across platforms. For instance, on March 22nd, 2021, Reddit^{[6] [7]} user /u/JustW4tch posted an iteration to /r/starterpacks, earning roughly 54,100 upvotes in two years (shown below, left). On June 4th, 2021, a since-deleted Redditor posted a girlboss variation of the template to /r/starterpacks, gaining over 290 upvotes in two years (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Template

Search Interest

External References