#oh worm meme

[expelliarmus-percabeth]

benedict lightwood’s death is literally the “oh, worm?” “then perish” meme

[letitrainathousandflames-archive]

Obi-Wan: we should grab something to eat by now

Anakin: oh, worm?

[memedocumentation]

Explained: oh, worm? meme

This is a meme that mainly involves using the phrase “oh, worm?” and variations thereof.

The phrase “oh, worm?” seems to be a purposeful alteration of the phrase “oh word”, a phrase associated with a macro on Meme Generator which has been dubbed “Lil D-wade” [archived link]. The macro features what is presumably a childhood photo of the American basketball player Dwyane Wade.

In one instance of the macro, the image was captioned with “OH WORM?”. From scrolling through the instances of captions for the macro, one can see that the meme with the “OH WORM?” caption has been generated several times. (Here is an example of one.)

It is unclear as to when the “OH WORM?” caption was first used. However, it seems to have existed since at least November 2016.

UPDATE (17 Dec 2017): We have found that the image macro was posted to Tumblr on 19 September 2016 by Tumblr user @gwynndolin. This appears to be what inspired future references to the phrase “oh, worm?”.

The phrase “oh, worm?” was brought to Tumblr thanks, in part, to Tumblr user @6thhouse. (The user wrote to us in this reblog here.)

On 9 November 2016, the user published a text post that simply stated, “oh worm?” Then, on 10 November 2016, the user made another post referencing “oh, worm?”; this post stated, “i’ve devolved into a caveman that can only say ‘mood’ and ‘oh worm?’”. This latter post has proved to be quite popular, garnering more than 15,000 notes.

Interest in “oh, worm?” returned in 2017 when the user @6thhouse made another post about it on 18 February 2017. This post requested for “oh worm.jpg”, which was then supplied in a reblog.

Subsequently, the phrase “oh, worm?” became popular on Tumblr. After the post from 18 February 2017, there was a relatively slow growth of the meme. For example, a post originally published on 11 May 2017 featured the phrase “oh worm” in a glittery typography.

However, the meme seemed to have had a greater growth in popularity starting around June 2017. For example, one post originally published on 8 June 2017 makes mention of “oh, wyrm?” Another post, originally published on 5 June 2017, crossed the oh, worm? meme with the nut button meme.

The meme has experienced continued popularity after June 2017. For instance, one post, originally published on 27 July 2017, states, “Literally how does “oh worm?” express every possible human emotion”.

Part of the interest in the meme appears to be the fact that the meme’s origins have remained elusive despite its popularity. For example, there was a submission to r/OutOfTheLoop from 8 June 2017 asking about the oh, worm? meme which has remained “unanswered”. (Also, this post makes reference to how not even Meme Documentation knew the origin of the meme.)

Acknowledgements go to @6thhouse and all the users who helped us research this meme!

Click here to see examples of the oh, worm? meme.

[austrianshitposting]

me, seeing a famous fountain in Klagenfurth: oh, Lindwurm?

[spychicken01]

Hi, I’m Jack and I like to think I’m funny sometimes.

[memedocumentation]

unfortunately i cannot seem to grok the intrinsic essence of the "oh, worm?" meme.... like. i sort of understand, but not like, how/when/where you use it? what sort of situation evokes a response of "oh, worm?"

No worries! Understanding “oh, worm?” can be difficult because it doesn’t have one exact meaning.

So “oh, worm?” is a modification of the phrase “oh, word”, in which case “word” can convey a sense of approval, acknowledgement, or agreement. We see that “oh, worm?” retains a meaning in this vein in this expanding brain meme, which compares the phrase to others like “I can relate” and “same”.

However, the phrase “oh, worm?” has generalised to mean a wide range of vague and ambiguous thoughts and emotions. As this post states, the phrase “express[es] every possible human emotion”.

There have been examples of usage in which “oh, worm?” conveys a sense of “oh, really?” along with perhaps a sense of unease or discomfort. (For example, have a look at this meme.) Or perhaps it is something one says when they have created a distance between themselves and everyone else around them through irony and sarcasm, and are thus unable to convey genuine emotion, relying only on memes to hint at their true feelings. 

Perhaps, “oh, worm?” means nothing and everything at the same time.

Perhaps, “oh, worm?” is the modern condition.

[memedocumentation]

Can you guys investigate oh, worm?; I've been trying to wrap my head around what it means and where it originated but to no luck so far

Honestly, this meme haunts us. We’ve researched it on and off for months and it seems to have just materialised from nowhere. 

The most we’ve gotten is that “oh worm” seems to be “oh word” modified. If anyone knows more about this meme, please do reach out to us!

(Adam from Know Your Meme, we know you keep up with our blog. If you have any ideas, please help.)

UPDATE (4 Aug 2017): We have further researched the oh, worm? meme and now have an explanation post for the meme available here.

[memedocumentation]

Didn't oh worm? Originate from that text post by 6thhouse that says smth like I'm a caveman who can only say mood and oh worm? That's the very first time I ever remember seeing that phrase and after that post went around everyone just started saying it. I might be completely wrong but still I don't know of any earlier examples I rly want y'all to get to solve this

@6thhouse, could you help us out? What’s the origin of “oh, worm?”? We’d appreciate it very much!