About

Weak vs. Strong Password is an exploitable image macro featuring a screenshot of a web page prompt testing password strength. The images, which first became popular on Reddit in September 2018, typically feature a word or phrase that represents weakness compared to one that represents strength. In August 2020, the meme had a resurgence on r/dankmemes.

Origin

On September 11th, 2018, Redditor The_Salty_Cat uploaded the first known Weak vs. Strong Password to r/dankmemes^[2] (shown below). The post, which labels "the rest of the world" as weak and "America" as strength gained over 7,300 points (87% upvoted) in two years.

Precursor

Password strength memes have appeared in other forms before 2018. For example, On July 27th, 2014, iFunny^[1] user tumblr__what_2013 reposted a since-deleted Tumblr post by chickenugget about "hate" being a strong password (shown below).

Spread

On September 16th, 2018, Redditor Eatthatpussy0 posted a variation to r/dankmemes^[3] that received over 3,200 points (96% upvoted) in two years. On September 22nd, Redditor Nootcom posted an example about the Constitution to r/HistoryMemes^[4] that accumulated over 2800 points (99% upvoted) in two years. (shown below, right).

On October 5th, 2019, Redditor its_kiran posted an example to r/im14andthisisdeep^[5] which acquired several parodies (shown below, left). The post gained over 10,200 points (98% upvoted) in a year (shown below, left). On January 14th, 2020, Redditor Cheeto-jpg uploaded another popular example to r/PrequelMemes^[6] and acquired over 3,600 points (99% upvoted) in seven months. In August, StayHipp^[7] published an article on the meme during its r/dankmemes resurgence.

Various Examples

Template

Search Interest

External References