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Wait, I Thought It Was a Joke meme format depicting a sad-looking fish from SpongeBob.

Wait, I Thought It Was a Joke

Part of a series on SpongeBob SquarePants. [View Related Entries]

Updated Feb 24, 2021 at 06:36PM EST by Zach.

Added Jan 04, 2021 at 07:05PM EST by Jill.

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About

Wait, I Thought it Was a Joke refers to a screenshot of a worried-looking blue fish from an episode of SpongeBob SquarePants often used in image macros and as a snowclone accompanied by a variation of the text, "Wait you guys are actually racist? I thought it was a joke." The meme first appeared in 2019 and grew in prevalence over the following years.

Origin

On October 5th, 2001, the SpongeBob SquarePants episode "The Bully" premiered in the U.S., which contains the image used in the meme.[1] In the episode, a character bullies SpongeBob, and as he flees the bully's threats, a crowd sees him running by, including a blue fish with a worried expression (shown below at timestamp 00:18).



On December 23rd, 2019, iFunny[2] user Taamo uploaded an image macro featuring a screenshot of the blue fish looking worried along with the top text, "Wait you guys are actually racist," and bottom text reading, "I thought it was a joke," garnering over 440 smiles in a year (shown below). This is the earliest known version of the meme.


WAIT YOU GUYS ARE ACTUALLY RACIST ITHOUGHT IT WAS A -JOKE

Spread

The meme didn't see any significant traction until months later when users started editing the text of the original meme in various ways to change the context. On April 21st, 2020, Redditor /u/CMakAttacks posted a version of the meme with the words "are actually racist" crudely replaced with the words "actually hate women" to /r/IncelsInAction,[3] garnering over 880 upvotes in 10 months (shown below). This is one of the earliest known versions of the meme used as a snowclone. On April 24th, Redditor /u/Piipperi800 uploaded a version of the meme to /r/MemeTemplatesOfficial[6] requesting the template.


WAIT YOU GUYS ACTUALLY HATE WOMEN? I THOUGHT IT WAS A

On April 27th, Instagram[4] user Boomer.Jim uploaded a version of the meme replacing "racist" with "sexist" garnering over 79,000 views in 10 months (shown below, left). On April 28th, Instagram[5] user a11ens posted another version of the meme replacing "racist" with "British," garnering over 1,300 likes in a comparable span of time (shown below, right).


WAIT YOU GUYS ARE ACTUALLY SEXIST ITHOUGHT IT WAS A OKE imgflip.com R WAIT YOU GUYS ARE ACTUALLY BRITISH JUST THOUGHT IT WAS A JOKE

On June 26th, Instagram[7] user moist.tumblr uploaded another version of the meme replacing "are actually racist" with "actually are14 years old" garnering over 39,000 likes in seven months (shown below, left). On December 10th, Tumblr[8] user rhythmtengoku posted a version of the meme referencing the video game Cyberpunk 2077 garnering over 43,000 notes in two months (shown below, right).


WAIT YOU GUYS actually are 14 years old LTHOUGHT IT WAS A -JOKE WAIT YOU GUYS ARE ACTUALLY playing cyberpunk 207 ITHOUGHT IT WAS A -JOKE


Template



Various Examples


WAIT YOU GUYS ACTUALLY Tike my art I THOUGHT IT WAS A WAIT YOU GUYS ARE ACTUALLY Playing league of legends I THOUGHT IT WAS A -JOKE WAIT YOU GUYS ACTUALLY GET MAD AT TRASH TALK I-THOUGHT IT WAS JUSTA JOKE WAIT YOU GUYS ARE ACTUALLY HORNY I THOUGHT IT WAS A JOKE WAIT YOU GUYS ACTUALLY BELIEVE LGBT+ PEOPLE WERE "BORN THIS WAY" AND NOT THAT ORIENTATION AND GENDER ARE COMPLEX SOCIALLY CONSTRUCTED PHENOMENA WITH SOME BÍOLOGICAL BASIS THAT ARE SUBJECT TO VARIATION AND CHANGE OVER AN INDIVIDUAL'S LIFE ITHOUGHT IT WAS TEMPORARY POLITICAL RHETORIC TO WIN OVER HOMOPHOBES AND TRANSPHOBES WAIT YOU GUYS ARE ACTUALLY Biden fanboys I THOUGHT IT WAS A matter of voting him for the sake of harm reduction with the understanding that we'd be vocal critics of him after taking office in order to show people the contradictions of neoliberalism

Search Interest

Unavailable.

External References

[1] Fandom – The Bully

[2] iFunny – WAIT YOU GUYS ARE ACTUALLY, RACIST

[3] Reddit – I thought it was a joke

[4] Instagram – Take your sexism back to ifunny where it belongs

[5] Instagram – #dankmemes

[6] Reddit – Wait I thought it was a joke template anyone?

[7] Instagram – Sometimes I forget I’m 19 and that I’m turning 20 in like three months … ew

[8] Tumblr – rhythmtengoku

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