About

What Scares You The Most is a series of photoshopped images based on an image by the comedy project Obvious Plant. The original photograph features a series of children being asked what scares them the most, a parody of a Halloween questionnaire that would be found on an elementary school classroom bulletin board.. Edits of the image feature other answers from the students for comedic effect.

Origin

On October 19th, 2016, the comedy project Obvious Plant posted an image parody of four students answering the question "What Scares You the Most?" as part of a Halloween questionnaire. While three of the four students chose simple, child-like fears, such as "Werewolves" and "Ghosts," the third child, Dylan, answered, "The unstoppable marching of time that is slowly guiding us all towards an inevitable death." The post (shown below) received more than 1,800 likes on Instagram ^[1] and 63,000 points (81% upvoted) and 1,500 comments on the /r/Funny subreddit. ^[2]

Spread

The following day, Redditor^[3] butjustlikewhy published a variation of the image in which Dylan answers, "The American public is being fooled into voting against their own interests via the corrupt two-party oligarchy that falsely portrays themselves to be legitimate democratic options." The post (shown below, left) received more than 30 points (76% upvoted) in two years.

On October 21st, the Facebook^[4] group Drunken Irish Memes posted a version in which Dylan answers "British Occupation." The post (shown below, center) received more than 670 points, 120 comments and 50 shares.

On October 23rd, Facebook ^[5] user Lachlan McDonald posted a variation that features the Star Wars character Anakin Skywalker answering, "Sand," a reference to the I Hate Sand meme. The post (shown below, center) received more than 1,300 reactions, 135 shares and 190 comments in less than two years.

Two years later, on May 24th, 2018, Redditor^[6] SicWik posted the original image in the /r/MemeEconomy subreddit. However, in this version, Catherine, the final child, answers, "-Dylan." The post received more than 12,000 points (88% upvoted) and 2,800 comments.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References