About

Walter White Cooking refers to a series of GIF caption memes based on a GIF of Walter White from the Breaking Bad series mixing chemical ingredients. The format gained popularity on Reddit in October 2021.

Origin

On April 25th, 2010, episode six "Sunset" of season three of the American television drama series Breaking Bad premiered.^[1] In one scene of the episode, protagonist Walter White, portrayed by Bryan Cranston, is manufacturing methamphetamine together with character Gale Boetticher (scene shown below).

On July 16th, 2020, Tenor^[2] user claracastro posted a GIF based on the scene (shown below, left). On January 20th, 2021, iFunny^[3] user idealistswagman posted the earliest known GIF Caption meme based on the GIF (shown below, right), with the post gaining 11 smiles.

The GIF caption format did not gain popularity until October 2021, when a meme about Netflix based on the GIF received viral spread. On October 7th, 2021, iFunny^[4] user elifrogg made the earliest found post of the GIF caption, gaining over 30 smiles. On October 11th, 2021, Redditor isjsvzakvajahbsjjs posted the meme to the /r/whenthe^[5] subreddit, where it gained over 21,900 upvotes in three weeks (shown below).

Spread

In the following days, the image received viral spread online through reposts on Instagram, iFunny^[6] and other platforms.

On October 13th, Redditor AntomoV10 posted a meme based on the GIF that gained over 2,300 upvotes in /r/whenthe^[7] and 13,300 upvotes in /r/shitposting^[8] in three weeks (shown below).

In the following days, the format achieved notable popularity on social media, primarily on Reddit. For example, on October 13th, Redditor tjamesmett posted a GIF caption meme that received over 10,500 upvotes in the /r/196^[9] subreddit. On October 22nd, Redditor raidermichael made a post that gained over 7,500 upvotes in /r/whenthe.^[10]

Various Examples

Templates

Search Interest

External References