About

Took A Photo Of The Only Other Dude In The Theater, Forgot My Flash Was On is a catchphrase and copypasta most often used alongside an image of a man sitting alone in a movie theater staring directly into the camera, implying he caught the photographer in the act of taking his picture while being flashed by the phone. The meme was originally posted to Reddit in December 2020 and received viral spread over the following years, the phrase is also sometimes used alongside photos of other people alone in theaters.

Origin

On December 1st, 2020, a now-deleted Redditor posted an image to /r/pics^[1] of a bearded man sitting alone in a movie theater looking directly at the camera with an unenthused look on his face, titled, "Took a photo of the only other dude in the theater, forgot my flash was on" (shown below). The post gained over 6,600 upvotes and a variety of awards in just over a year.

Took a photo of the only other dude in the theater, forgot my flash was on.

Spread

The meme was turned into an image macro and received viral spread over the following months. For example, on December 3rd, 2020, Instagram^[2] user shitheadsteve shared the meme, gaining over 107,000 likes in just over a year (shown below).

The post's phrase also became a copypasta, used alongside other photos and photoshops of people alone in the theater. For example, on December 3rd, 2020, Twitter^[4][5] users @mallerjour and @filthchef used the phrase with photos of Kim Jong Il and Hulk Hogan images (shown below, left and right).

On September 29th, 2021, it was shared by Instagram^[3] page scoobydoofruitsnacks, gaining over 165,000 likes in eight months. On March 31st, 2022, Twitter^[6] user @AdzzCx posted the image, writing, "Saw #Morbius tonight and there was only one other dude there, took a pic and accidentally had flash on 💀💀" gaining over 186,000 likes and 12,400 retweets in a day (shown below). That day, Twitter^[7] user @ChurdGuntley commented with the link to the original Reddit post, writing, "why do people do this," gaining over 1,500 likes in a day.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References