36 Roentgen Not Great Not Terrible — Chernobyl HBO scene with subtitle '3.6... not great, not terrible.'

36 Roentgen Not Great Not Terrible

2019catchphraseclassic

Published August 1, 2026

"3.6 Roentgen, Not Great, Not Terrible" is a catchphrase from HBO's 2019 Chernobyl miniseries, spoken by character Anatoly Dyatlov after a dosimeter reading during the reactor disaster. The line hit meme status within days of the show's May 6, 2019 premiere and is still used online to mock people downplaying obviously bad situations.

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Overview

The meme is a one-liner delivered by Anatoly Dyatlov (played by British actor Paul Ritter) in the first episode of HBO's Chernobyl miniseries1. When his staff reports a dosimeter reading of 3.6 roentgen during the reactor explosion, Dyatlov shrugs and says "not great, not terrible," unaware that 3.6 was the meter's maximum reading and the real exposure was thousands of times higher4.

Internet users adopted the phrase as a reaction to disasters, understatement, and any situation where someone is visibly downplaying a catastrophe. It circulates as image macros of Ritter's face, screencap reaction GIFs, and text captions layered onto unrelated bad news2.

Origin & Background

Platform
HBO Chernobyl (source) / 4chan + Reddit (viral spread)
Key People
Unknown
Date
2019

The line first aired on May 6, 2019, in the pilot episode of the HBO Chernobyl miniseries, which dramatized the 1986 Soviet nuclear plant disaster1. Meme references to the quote started showing up on Twitter the same night. Two days later, on May 8, an anonymous 4chan /tv/ user posted an edit of the board's reporting tool with Dyatlov's face and the "not great, not terrible" line, the earliest known meme version of the catchphrase4.

How It Spread

On May 21, 2019, a Redditor posted the "3.6 roentgens" quote to r/ChernobylTV paired with Game of Thrones' High Sparrow character, pulling over 2,400 upvotes2. The same day, Twitter user @kalebprime shared a Dyatlov meme with the line, hitting about 30 likes3. Three days later, Redditor Jacknerik posted a This Is Fine crossover edit that also cleared 2,000 upvotes2.

The catchphrase kept popping up over the following years. On August 12, 2022, a since-deleted Redditor posted a Chernobyl power plant snow globe to r/dankmemes with the quote as an image macro, drawing over 3,000 upvotes5. On February 18, 2025, Redditor LemurDaddy's "Rate My Gaming Setup" edit featuring characters from the series and the catchphrase hit over 13,000 upvotes on r/HistoryMemes6.

The line got a fresh boost in August 2025 during the viral Radioactive Walmart Shrimp story, when the Facebook page Domestically Dysfunctional posted a photoshopped image of a glowing green toilet with a caption referencing the quote, pulling over 10,000 reactions and 3,500 shares in five days7.

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How to Use This Meme

The format is typically a still of Paul Ritter as Dyatlov paired with the "3.6 roentgens, not great, not terrible" caption, layered over an obviously terrible situation the poster is pretending to shrug off. Common conventions include reaction image macros, GIF replies dropped into chats when someone brushes off real danger, and mashups pairing Dyatlov with other disaster or denial characters like the This Is Fine dog2.

Frequently Asked Questions