This Was Considered Comically X In Y

About

This Was Considered Comically X In Y refers to a phrasal template used by meme creators to satirically identify social norms and standards that have changed over the years. The "X" is most often replaced with an adjective and the "Y" is replaced with a year or time period. The most common adjectives used were "comically large," "comically obese," "comically overweight" and "comically ugly." The meme started with a viral tweet on Twitter in late 2021, spreading to iFunny and Instagram, among other platforms, in 2022 and 2023.

Origin

On September 5th, 2021, Twitter^[1] user @ElijahSchaffer posted about Augustus Gloop from Charlie and The Chocolate Factory saying, "In 1971 when the original Willy Wonka was released, Augustus Gloop was considered 'comically' fat and an extreme example of gluttony / In 2021, this is just an average 8th grader." The tweet gained roughly 3,300 likes in one and a half years (shown below, left). About a month later, on November 29th, 2021, Twitter^[2] user @modrenman999 tweeted a photo of George Costanza from Seinfeld, captioned, "This was considered comically overweight in the 90’s," earning roughly 32,700 likes in the same timeframe (shown below, right).

Spread

After Twitter^[2] user @modrenman999's tweet, the phrasal template gained usage by others on the app. For instance, on November 30th, 2021, Twitter^[3] user @MuslimTom_ tweeted a photo of Mr. Creosote from Monty Python, captioning it, "This was considered comically overweight in the 1980s," gaining roughly 1,500 likes in a year and a half (shown below).

Roughly a year later, the meme gained significant spread, mostly due to a copycat tweet uploaded by Twitter^[4] user @kennedytcooper on September 22nd, 2022 that made the same George Costanza joke as Twitter^[2] user @modrenman999. @kennedytcooper's tweet gained roughly 25,000 likes in eight months (shown below, left). Viral iterations continued to surface going into 2023, such as a tweet sent by Twitter^[5] user @AHAB_INC on April 6th, 2023, that labeled a scene from Drake and Josh with Goth girls as "comically unattractive in 2005," gaining roughly 11,100 likes in one month (shown below, right).

The memes also spread elsewhere in 2023, such as a meme posted by iFunny^[6] user @Soren on April 30th, 2023, that referenced the comically large spoon, gaining roughly 12,900 smiles in nine days (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

Unavailable.

External References