About

WikiHow Defending Against Knife Attack is an image macro series based on a WikiHow illustration of a man raising his arms in defense against another man brandishing a knife. Online, people use the image for object labeling memes about dealing with uncomfortable realizations.

Origin

On October 15th, 2015, WikiHow editor Adrian Tandez updated the article "How to Beat a 'Tough' Person in a Fight."^[1][2] Among the updates, Tandez added the illustration of a man facing off another man who is holding a knife (shown below). They write, "Establish a clear set of rules before you begin. If your opponent uses dirty tricks, there's no reason why you should hold back. When in a planned fight, you and your opponent should come to a mutual agreement of what is and isn't allowed in the fight. You can also get an impartial third party to help lay down the rules and act as a kind of referee for the fight."

Spread

On March 21st, 2019, Redditor TurtBurglar97 posted the image on the /r/DisneyVacation^[3] subreddit. They captioned the image, "How to survive a fight with Dr. Phil." The post received more than 27,000 points (95% upvoted) and 260 comments in less than two years (shown below, left)

That day, Twitter ^[4] user @MacMcCannTX tweeted the image with the man in orange labeled "my hopes & dreams" and the man with the knife labeled "adulthood." The tweet received more than 6,700 likes and 1,900 retweets in less than two years (shown below, center).

On December 1st, 2020, Instagram ^[4] user @pablopiqasso shared a variation in which the man with the knife is labeled "March again in 3 months" and the man in orange labeled "me still processing the last march." The post received more than 9,2000 likes in less than two months (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Template

Search Interest

Not available.

External References