About

Upgrades, People, Upgrades is a memorable quote from the 2005 computer-animated film Robots. Online, an image macro based on the scene has been used in memes, often in reference to lifehacks and improvements akin to Improvise. Adapt. Overcome meme format.

Origin

On March 11th, 2005, the computer-animated film Robots was released in the United States.^[1] In the film, the character Phineas T. Ratched, voiced by Greg Kinnear, presents his new business plan, which relies on selling upgrades instead of spare parts.

What's our big-ticket item? Upgrades, people, upgrades! That's how we make the dough.

On July 25th, 2019, Redditor theepicguys posted a captioned still image from the scene to /r/MemeTemplatesOfficial subreddit, gaining over 60 upvotes in four months (shown below, left).^[2] The format did not see further spread until on August 2nd, 2019, when theepicguys posted a meme based on the template to /r/memes, which received over 40,700 upvotes in the same period (shown below, right).^[3] On the same day, theepicguys reposted the template to /r/MemeFormats, receiving over 190 upvotes.^[4]

Spread

In the following days, the format gained significant spread on Reddit, primarily in the /r/dankmemes subreddit. A post made by Redditor sir_oinks on August 4th, 2019 gained over 11,700 upvotes in four months (shown below, left).^[5] A post made by Redditor wildfuture in /r/HistoryMemes that same day gained over 6,400 upvotes (shown below, right).^[6]

In mid-October 2019, the format saw a short resurgence in major meme communities on Reddit. For example, a meme posted by Redditor Goditnubby on October 17th gained over 34,700 upvotes in one month.^[7] Another meme posted a day later by Redditor CruzCruise1231 received over 19,300 upvotes.^[8]

Various Examples

Template

Search Interest

External References