About

Unsettled Detective Pikachu refers to a reaction image macro of a screenshot of the character Detective Pikachu from the film Pokémon: Detective Pikachu. The meme is a variation of the Unsettled Tom image macro.

Origin

On May 1st, 2019, Detective Pikachu star Ryan Reynolds published a video preview of the film in which Pikachu interacts with the character Psyduck. Pikachu grows concerned by Psyduck's ramblings and gives him a worried facial expression (shown below). In one month, the video has been viewed more than 7.6 million times.

On May 12th, 2019, Redditor ^[1] MeowMeowImAKitty posted a screenshot of Pikachu from the scene in which he appears concerned. They added the caption "When you notice the quiet kid that sits next you brought a duffel bag to class" (shown below).

Spread

That day, the same Redditor^[2] published the same meme on the /r/MemeEconomy subreddit, where it received more than 1,500 points (98% upvoted) and 120 comments in four days.

Throughout the week, the meme grew in popularity on Reddit. On May 14th, Redditor^[3] SarcasticaFont posted a variation in the /r/USMC subreddit. They captioned the image, "When you're out on the range and the weird guy in the unit start talking to himself and switches to full auto." Within two days, the post received more than 1,000 points (99% upvoted) and 45 comments (shown below, left).

The following day, Redditor^[4] 2006pow posted a variation of the meme in which Pikachu acts as the reaction of helicopter passengers after the engine is killed midflight. The post received more than 53,000 points (93% upvoted) and 285 comments in 24 hours (shown below, center).

On May 16th, Redditor^[5] reterdedlol posted a variation in the /r/dankmemes subreddit in which Pikachu acts as the reaction of people at a shooting range when another shoots a friend. The post received more than 72,000 points (94% upvoted) and 300 comments (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References