About

Thomas Kinkade Painting Parodies refers to a series of edited parodies using paintings by American painter William Thomas Kinkade III, known for achieving success in the 1990s with his realistic, pastoral and idyllic subjects. Throughout the 2010s and 2020s, his paintings received notable hate online for their perceived lack of soul and meaning, becoming the subject of Photoshop edits, parodies and memes by users trying to express how bad his art was as people began adding various pop culture references and other humorous elements to his works.

Origin

William Thomas Kinkade III was an American painter who described himself as a "Painter of Light."^[1] He started working with art in the 1980s, selling his originals in galleries throughout California. Kinkade focused his work on pastel colors and brilliant illumination of the scene, painting dream-like houses and landscapes (examples shown below).

Spread

After the painter's death in April 2012, his work started to be photoshopped on social media. For instance, on December 1st, 2013, painter Jeff Bennett^[2] released a series of paintings called "Wars on Kinkade" in which Stormtroopers and other Star Wars characters invaded Kinkade's worlds (shown below, left and right).

Related Memes

I'm Trapped In A Thomas Kinkade Painting

On June 11th, 2021, IFunny^[3] user @Lactatious posted a Kinkade painting (shown below, left) paired with the overlay text "Girl Help, I'm trapped in a Thomas Kinkade painting." The ironic meme garnered roughly five reactions and three comments in two years. In the same period, imgflip^[4] user @ SomeRandomPersonProbably posted the meme paired with a man's reaction (shown below, right), which amassed over 174 views and two upvotes in two years.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References