About

You Can Kill the Man, But Not the Idea or You Killed the Men, Not the Idea is a catchphrase used in a series of memes showing an image of a dead or irrelevant man or character next to another image somehow related to the character alongside the caption, "You can kill the man but not the idea," suggesting that even if the person is dead, their ideas live on. The quote is attributed to civil rights activist Medgar Evers and became the subject of memes as early as February 2019, becoming increasingly popularized over the following years.

Origin

Versions of the quote, "You can kill the man, but not the idea," are attributed to several people, including philosopher Sophocles^[1] and, most commonly, civil rights activist Medgar Evers.^[2]

On February 14th, 2019, iFunny^[3] user XBaconWrappedChungusDANKX_2016 posted a meme using a version of the quote reading, "You killed the men, not the idea," garnering around 78 smiles in six years. The meme shows a soldier on the left of a split-screen and Garfield on the right. This is the earliest known version of the meme.

Spread

Versions of the quote continued to inspire memes over the following years, becoming increasingly popularized throughout the 2020s.

On December 3rd, 2022, X^[4] user @TrollFootball posted a version about two different soccer players, garnering over 91,000 likes in three years.

On October 25th, 2023, Redditor u/Ehrenlauch3000 posted a meme using the quote to the /r/okbuddyretard^[5] subreddit featuring Jeffrey Epstein that gained over 9,000 upvotes in two years.

On September 23rd, 2024, Redditor u/funny_lil-guy posted an edit of the Epstein meme to the /r/okbuddyretard^[6] subreddit that replaces the images of the supposed "idea" behind Epstein with an image of Diddy, garnering over 6,000 upvotes in a year.

On November 27th, the Dankest Memes ͡º ͜ʖ ͡º Facebook^[7] page posted a version of the meme showing the Kevin James Smirking meme next to the Chill Guy meme, garnering over 1,700 reactions in nine months.

On August 3rd, 2025, X^[8] user @ShitpostGate reposted the Epstein version of the meme, garnering over 20,000 likes in a day.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References