About

Would You Rather Have $1 or $2 refers to a series of ironic memes captioned with the phrase based on a humorous image of Joe Higashi from the fighting game series Fatal Fury and King of Fighters in which he is given an impossibly large head. The memes parody "would you rather" engagement bait posts in which the viewer is asked to decide which of two gainful options they prefer.

Origin

On August 17th, 2022, Redditor qwerty-balls posted an ironic meme based on a bara fan art of Colonel Sanders. The image, captioned "Would you rather have $1 or $2," parodies social media posts that present the viewer with a choice between two gainful options. The post (shown below) received over 13,000 upvotes in the /r/okbuddyretard^[1] subreddit in three years.

On August 19th, 2022, Instagram^[2] user kof.irony reusted the joke in a meme based on a humorous drawing of character Joe Higashi from the Fatal Fury and King of Fighters fighting game series. The drawing replaced Higashi's entire body with just his head. The post (shown below) gained over 580 likes in three years.

Spread

In the following years, the Joe Higashi version of the meme saw viral spread online through reposts on Instagram,^[3] Facebook,^[4] Reddit^[5] and other sites.

On May 13th, 2024, Redditor^[6] Jonathan2915 posted the earliest found meme based on the image, replacing Joe Higashi with the Guilty Gear character Sin Kiske. The post (shown below) gained over 1,100 upvotes in the /r/Guitlygear subreddit in one year.

On November 17th, 2024, X^[7] user @Melodic_Minor_ used the image as a reaction to a social media post asking to choose between several storage options, highlighting that every person would normally choose the largest option, just like how everyone would normally choose $2 over $1. The post (shown below) received over 9,100 reposts and 194,000 likes in four months.

This and more viral instances of use of the meme in the following months prompted fan art memes in which Joe Higashi was replaced with other characters drawn in the same comical style.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References