# A Shooting Star Rejecting Wish
A Shooting Star Rejecting Wish is a three-panel image macro from September 2019 where a man wishes on a shooting star and the star U-turns to escape granting it. The format lets editors swap any wish into the middle panel, and Reddit repostings in early 2020 pushed it well past its Pokémon-fandom origin.
## Overview
A Shooting Star Rejecting Wish is a three-panel image macro built around a small piece of visual comedy. The first panel shows a man spotting a shooting star, the second panel displays the wish he makes, and the third panel shows the star abruptly turning the opposite direction to escape the request[1]. The joke works as a punchline: the star literally refuses to grant whatever the wisher wants.
The format took off because the middle panel is a blank canvas for any punchline, from self-deprecating one-liners about happiness[2] to niche fandom requests tied to specific video games[3]. Editors swap in whatever wish fits their audience, while the first and third panels stay untouched.
## How It Spread
Nineteen days after the Pokémon Masters original, on September 27th, 2019, Facebook user ab0rteddreams posted a version outside the gaming niche with the wish "I wish I was happy" and the caption "lolfuck you," pulling in more than 980 reactions and 490 shares[2]. The next day, Twitter user @ItsJustJ0rd swapped in a wish for a Little Nightmares 2 level creator, showing how fast editors were remixing the middle panel[3].
The "I wish I was happy" cut migrated to Reddit on October 8th, 2019, when javaalien reposted it and earned over 2,400 points with a 91% upvote ratio[4]. Momentum built through early 2020: on February 4th, Redditor M4tik_ posted a variation where the star explodes and the man says "Finally," collecting more than 22,900 points in about a month[5].
The template hit peak Reddit reach on March 4th, 2020, when RetardGoblin69 shared a version to /r/memes that pulled over 35,000 points in under 24 hours[6]. Variations kept spinning off across the site afterward.
## How to Use
Editors typically leave the first and third panels untouched, keeping the man's spot and the star's later U-turn intact. The middle panel is where the wish text goes, and the common convention is to make the ask specific enough to earn the rejection, whether that's a self-deprecating one-liner or a niche fandom pull request[5].
## Frequently Asked Questions
### What is A Shooting Star Rejecting Wish?
It is a three-panel image macro where a man wishes on a shooting star and the star turns the opposite direction to avoid granting the wish[1].
### Where did A Shooting Star Rejecting Wish come from?
The earliest known version was posted by Redditor JohnnySparkxs on September 8th, 2019, in the /r/pokemonmasters subreddit with the wish "I wish I could scout Blue"[1].
### What does A Shooting Star Rejecting Wish mean?
The template is a punchline about denial, using the star's exit to reject the wish text in the middle panel, often a self-deprecating line like "I wish I was happy"[2].
### How do you use A Shooting Star Rejecting Wish?
Keep the first and third panels as they are, and edit the middle panel to whatever wish fits your joke, from mental-health humor[2] to fandom-specific asks[3].
### Is A Shooting Star Rejecting Wish still popular?
It peaked on Reddit in March 2020 after a /r/memes post cleared 35,000 points in a day, and it has stayed in circulation as a reusable template since[6].
## References
1. [https://www.reddit.com/r/PokemonMasters/]()
2. [https://www.facebook.com/]()
3. [https://twitter.com/]()
4. [https://www.reddit.com/r/funny/]()
5. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/a-shooting-star-rejecting-wish]()
6. [https://www.reddit.com/r/memes/]()
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Source: https://meme.com/memes/a-shooting-star-rejecting-wish
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