About

Unbothered. Moisturized. Happy. In My Lane. Focused. Flourishing. is a phrase most commonly associated with an image of a fat man, known as the "Pond Sage," bathing happily in a pond. The phrase was first tweeted in 2019 by @onlycaelik and later attached to the image of the man. It started to see use as an exploitable in 2020. It is attached to images with similar energy as the man in the pond to highlight the contentment a subject feels.

Origin

On July 30th, 2019, Twitter^[1] user @onlycaelik posted the first-known instance of "unbothered. moisturized. happy. in my lane. focused. flourishing," gaining over 9,500 retweets and 13,700 likes in two years (shown below).

On July 31st, Redditor ithepunisher posted an image of a fat man bathing in a pond to /r/ireland^[3] with the caption "welcome traveler do you seek the wisdom of the Irish pond sage? Fear not but do not step any closer for yee shall be cursed," gaining over 2,800 upvotes in two years. The man became known as the "Pond Sage" over time. According to a post by Redditor ImYourHuckleberry, the image was originally posted by Redditor^[4] ironh0rse, an account that has since been deleted. On February 25th, 2020, Tumblr^[2] user empezardexerox posted an image of a fat man relaxing in a pond known as the Pond Sage with the phrase cut-and-pasted overtop, gaining over 35,000 notes in a year (shown below). This is the earliest known use of the phrase in a meme.

Spread

On March 31st, 2020, YouTuber ryan small posted a voice-over version of the meme, reading the caption in an echoing Irish accent, gaining over 6,000 views in a year (shown below).

The meme also inspired redraws later on in 2020. For example, on September 8th, Tumblr^[5] user fistraid posted an Amphibia redraw of the meme, gaining over 1,100 notes in a year (shown below, left). On November 9th, Twitter^[6] user @riotbreakerr made a Homestuck redraw, gaining over 1,200 likes in a similar span of time (shown below, right).

In the following months, people began attaching the screenshot of the tweet text, as well as using the phrase in post captions, to other images with similar energy to Pond Sage, meant to highlight how unbothered and relaxed the subject is. On March 19th, 2021, for example, Facebook^[7] page Animals With Powerful Auras posted an image of an alligator on a pool floaty with the caption "unbothered. moisturized. happy. in my lane. focused. flourishing," gaining over 59,000 shares and 19,000 reactions in six months (shown below).

On April 18th, YouTuber Luke Correia posted a voice-over version of the Pond Sage meme, gaining over 512,000 views in five months (shown below, left). On April 19th, YouTuber TroliFishi used the voice-over to recreate the meme with a Team Fortress 2 Heavy, gaining over 24,000 views in the same span of time (shown below, right).

On May 25th, 2021, Instagram^[8] page cursedcats.jpg attached the caption to an image of a cat in the bath, gaining over 63,000 likes in four months (shown below, left). On June 21st, Instagram^[9] page doggosdoingthings posted an image of a dog bathing in a large planter filled with water along with the phrase, gaining over 100,000 likes in three months (shown below, right)

Various Examples

Template

Search Interest

External References