About

What Kind of American Are You? is a line said by Jesse Plemons' nameless character in the 2024 movie Civil War in an attempt to establish the political beliefs of a group of characters and determine whether they're a friend or foe. Online, a still image of Plemons' character scratching his cheek achieved virality as a caption format and reaction image in memes, typically being paired with versions of the line using the phrasal template "What Kind Of X Are You?"

Origin

On December 2023, the official trailer for the dystopian film Civil War premiered on YouTube.^[1] In the trailer, Jesse Plemons' character, an ultranationalist soldier, questions the main character and her group, asking them, "What kind of American are you?" to establish their allegiance in the ongoing civil conflict (shown below, 1:19 mark).

- We're American, okay?
- Okay. What kind of American are you?

On April 12th, Civil War then premiered in the United States.

On April 13th, X^[2] / Twitter user @moviesRtherapy posted the earliest found meme based on the scene, captioning an image of Plemmons' character scratching his cheek, “Yeah? What kind of nerd are you?” The post (shown below) received over 200 likes in three days.

Spread

The format did not achieve major spread until April 15th, 2024, when X^[3] user @AlsikkanTV posted the image with the caption, "What kind of Barry Lindon fan are you." The post (shown below, left) received over 120 reposts and 2,800 likes in one day. Later on April 15th, X^[4] user @NextBestPicture posted a version of the meme about director Martin Scorsese, which gained over 460 reposts and 5,800 likes in one day (shown below, right).

The posts were followed by the viral spread of the format on social media, primarily on X / Twitter, in the following days. For example, on April 15th, 2024, X^[5] user @zuza_real captioned the image, "well what kind of bisexual are you." The post (shown below, left) received over 280 reposts and 4,000 likes in one day (shown below, left).

Later that day, X^[6] user @thekinocorner posted a Literally Me joke that garnered over 50 reposts and 530 likes in one day (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Template

Search Interest

External References