About

There Is an Arabic Saying refers to an exploitable quote card meme based on a still image from the 2012 film Life of Pi, captioned with a made-up "Arabic saying" about testing one's limits by throwing yourself into the sea. Originally posted in 2021 to Instagram, a version of the image macro recaptioned to read "There is an Arabic saying: kill yourself" gained virality as a reaction image starting in 2022. In late 2024, more recaption memes based on the macro were circulated online.

Origin

On May 24th, 2021, the hustle culture Instagram^[1] page billionairebound posted a quote macro based on a still image from the 2012 film Life of Pi showing the protagonist Pi Patel in a lifeboat together with a Bengal tiger and captioned with a made-up Arabic quote about deliberately subjecting oneself to hardships. The post (shown below) received over 34,000 likes in four years.

Prior to April 7th, 2022, an unknown user posted a recaptioned version of the macro, removing most of the text except for "kill yourself." On April 7th, 2022, iFunny^[2] user d7o4yjw35p6788 reposted the macro to the app (shown below). Also that day, Tumblr^[3] user asundergrowth posted a cropped version of the same meme, with the post gaining over 220 likes and reblogs in three years.

Spread

On August 26th, 2022, Redditor Jonneiluhub reposted the image to the /r/shitposting^[4] subreddit, where it received over 11,000 upvotes prior to removal.

The image has been used as a reaction on X and Reddit as early as 2022. For example, on November 26th, 2022, X^[5] user @dragon_scim used it to reply to another user.

On January 15th, 2023, X^[6] user @SKULLHORNETS used the image to reply to a user sharing the 1998 Eye Chart meme, with the reply gaining over 10 reposts and 1,200 likes in two years (shown below).

On July 7th, 2024, X^[7] user @JohnB132489 posted a version of the meme recaptioned to, "There is an Arabic saying: kill all white people." The post (shown below) received over 290 likes in six months.

In the second half of 2024, the image achieved popularity as a reaction image, with more versions of the meme appearing starting in December 2024. The phrase, "There is an Arabic saying," saw independent use on X, typically being used to reference the meme.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References