About

Vampire vs. Superman vs. Doctor Weaknesses or What They're Afraid Of is an exploitable meme template derived from a webcomic in which a vampire, Superman and a doctor are shown in a column next to a thing they're purportedly scared of, the items being garlic, kryptonite and an apple respectively. The comic was originally posted to 9GAG in late 2017 and gained viral spread over the following years as the subject of photoshops replacing the doctor and his weakness with another example, or adding additional examples to the column.

Origin

On November 15th, 2017, 9GAG^[1] user _notaaron1919 posted a webcomic in which three characters are shown in a column next to their purported weaknesses or "what they're afraid of," starting with a vampire next to garlice, followed by a Superman next to kryptonite and finally a doctor next to an apple, referencing the saying, "an apple a day keeps the doctor away," garnering over 13,000 upvotes in seven years (shown below).

Spread

The meme became the subject of edits over the following years. On January 20th, 2018, the Sarcasm Facebook^[2] page posted a version of the meme that gained over 99,000 reactions and 3,000 shares in six years (shown below, left). On December 21st, a version of the meme was posted to /r/ComedyCemetery^[3] that garnered over 25,000 upvotes in the same span of time (shown below, right).

On April 5th, 2023, Instagram^[4] user theminecraftassistant posted a version of the meme referencing Minecraft, garnering over 16,200 likes in 10 months (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

Unavailable

External References