About

When You Break Into a House to Rob Them But They're Watching X, also known as Robber Distracted by TV, is a phrasal template and exploitable format used in a series of caption memes based on an image of a burglar watching TV next to a couple whose home he just broke into. The format, which comes from an ad for CNN, first gained virality in April 2021 following a viral X (Twitter) post.

Origin

On June 11th, 2020, My Modern Met^[1] posted a collection of "News You Can't Ignore" advertisements created by photographer Ken Anderson for CNN. One of the ads depicts a burglar sitting on a window sill of a family home he just broke into, watching the news together with a couple who are lying in bed (shown below).

On April 4th, 2021, X^[2] user @97Vercetti posted the image, a still image from Shrek 2 edited onto the TV screen, captioning the post, "when u break into a house to rob them but they watching shrek 2." The post (shown below) gained over 20,600 reposts and 112,000 likes in two years.

Spread

In the following weeks, screenshots of the post were widely shared online. For example, on April 5th, 2021, the Instagram^[3] account daquan posted it, with the post gaining over 625,000 likes in two years.

On April 7th, 2021, the Facebook^[4][5] pages Car memes and K.S.I posted the earliest derivative memes based on the format, with the posts gaining over 5,800 reactions and 1,300 shares and 30,000 reactions and 790 shares, respectively, in two years (shown below, left and right).

In 2022 and 2023, the format maintained moderate popularity across all major platforms, including posts on X, Instagram, Facebook and iFunny. For example, on September 19th, 2022, X^[6] user @ilovejohnkimble posted a version about Predator which received over 40 reposts and 430 likes in one year (shown below), with a September 20th repost by the Facebook^[7] page Addicted To SciFi & Fantasy gaining an additional 12,000 reactions and 4,100 shares in one year.

Various Examples

Template

Search Interest

Unavailable.

External References