PSA: finally ran both Reddit and Twitter memes through Google Lens to find the originals

Spent like 3 hours last night tracing a "distracted boyfriend" variant back to a 2015 stock photo site and now I can finally debunk that "it came from a deleted sub" rumor, has anyone else tried reverse image searching old memes?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_piper24d ago

Debunk that 'it came from a deleted sub' rumor" is basically my full-time hobby now... I'm the weirdo who keeps a spreadsheet of meme origins.

felix_lane9924d ago

@the_piper Okay but here's the real question: do you Ever track the false debunks that spread faster than the original rumor? Because I swear half the time people see a well-formatted fake explanation and just run with it. The "deleted sub" thing is a classic because it gives people a convenient villain instead of facing the boring truth that memes just evolve organically. I'd be curious what percentage of your spreadsheet is actual Origins versus people's made-up lore that got believed anyway.

johnson.jason24d ago

Wait, are you telling me there's people out there who actually believe the "deleted sub" thing without checking? Because yeah I've seen that too, the fake debunks spread way faster than anything real. Its like people just want a good story over the boring truth that someone made a meme in a group chat at 2am. My spreadsheet is like 60% real origins and 40% wild fan fiction people convinced themselves was true. The worst ones are the ones that get picked up by news sites who don't fact check anything. I swear half the internet runs on copy paste without a second thought.