About

When You See a Repost / Tom HD refers to a reaction image macro of a high-quality image of the character Tom from the animated television series SpongeBob SquarePants. Many of the jokes and variations of the meme feature the image of Tom with the phrasal template "when you see a repost but." The meme is based on the idea of someone reposting a meme in better image quality than the original.

Origin

On April 1st, 2000, the episode of SpongeBob SquarePants entitled "Fools In April" aired. The episode features a shot of the character Tom holding a glass of liquid and staring at the character SpongeBob (shown below).^[1]

Fifteen years later, on February 5th, 2017, Instagram ^[2] user @uncle_skooby posted an english-language variation of the When your girlfriend has a twin sister so you get confused and have sex with her dad meme. The post (shown below, left) received more than 250 likes in a year and a half.

The following month, on March 19th, HughLOL^[3] user skrrrrt posted a variation of the image macro featuring the high-quality image of Tom (shown below, center), the earliest known usage of the image. Many on the site, claimed that the meme was stolen from another HugeLOL post.^[4]

Weeks later, on April 12th, Twitter ^[5] user @Taylor_willz posted the image of Tom with the caption "This is the highest quality meme I've ever seen. My eyes almost can't handle it." The post (shown below, right) received more than 20 retweets and 25 likes in one year.

On April 29th, 2018 FunnyJunk ^[6] user wcpapier posted a variation of the meme, adding the caption, "When you see a repost but it's in magnificent quality and resolution." The post (shown below) received more than 1,900 upvotes in less than six months.

Spread

The image quickly circulated from there. That day, Redditor^[9] posted the image on /r/BikiniBottomTwitter subreddit. The post received more than 67,000 points and 500 comments in less than six months. On July 29th, 2018, the meme from FunnyJunk was posted on the /r/me_irl subreddit by Redditor ^[7] gavinefb. The post received more than 8,700 points (95% upvoted) and 75 comments in less than two weeks.

Shortly after, Redditors on /r/me_irl posted variation changing the caption to reflect photoshopped versions of the image. On July 31st, Redditor^[8] yetanotherAZN posted a version with the caption, "when you see a repost but it's traced by hand in paint." The post (shown below, left) received more than 26,000 points (91% upvoted) and 110 comments.

On August 1st, Redditor^[9] MaliciousHH posted an animated GIF variation with the caption, "when a repost sees you." Within one week, the post (shown below, center) received more than 46,000 points (92% upvoted) and 415 comments.

On August 3rd, Redditor^[8] lookatthedrink posted a zoom in version that asked users to look at variation points of the meme to receive a message. The post (shown below, right) received more than 16,000 points (89% upvoted) and 295 comments in four days.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References