What is American Chopper Argument?

A five-panel image macro built from screenshots of Paul Teutul Sr. and Paul Teutul Jr. yelling at each other on Discovery Channel's reality show American Chopper.

Where did American Chopper Argument come from?

The panels come from Season 6 Episode 1 of American Chopper, "NHL Bike B2 Bomber Bike," which aired April 9, 2009.

What does American Chopper Argument mean?

The format stages a mock debate in five beats: proposition, rebuttal, escalation, chair-throw, and final accusatory point.

How do you use American Chopper Argument?

Overlay text boxes on the five stills to script an argument between the two Teutuls over any topic, from Garfield to gender politics.

Is American Chopper Argument still popular?

The template hit its peak in March and April 2018 and was covered that spring by Vice, Vox, CNET, Slate, USA Today, and Mashable.

When did the meme first appear?

The scene aired in 2009 and Redditors first turned it into an exploitable comic in late 2011.

Why did the meme come back in March 2018?

A March 26, 2018 tweet by @_ericcurtin kicked off the revival, and Vice noted the timing lined up with Discovery's American Chopper reboot planned for May 2018.

Who are the two people in the meme?

Paul Teutul Sr. and his son Paul Teutul Jr., who ran Orange County Choppers, a custom motorcycle shop in upstate New York.

What is the argument in the original scene about?

Paul Sr. confronts Paul Jr. about showing up 45 minutes late to work, and by the end of the episode Sr. fires him.

What famous crossover versions exist?

Star Wars, Garfield, and Blink-182 versions all made the rounds during the March and April 2018 spread.

Why was the image reshaped for Twitter?

The original stack of five panels is tall and awkward on mobile, so users rebuilt it side-by-side to fit Twitter's crop preview.

American Chopper Argument

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Published August 1, 2026

American Chopper Argument is a five-panel image macro built from screenshots of Paul Teutul Sr. and his son Paul Teutul Jr. shouting at each other on Discovery Channel's reality show. The template started as a wholesome dialogue swap on Reddit in 2011, then hit peak Twitter virality in March and April 2018 as a format for staging mock debates over pop culture and politics.

exploitable templates multi panel memes debate memes reality tv origin memes delayed virality memes

Overview

American Chopper Argument is an image macro format built from five screenshots of a shouting match between father and son Paul Teutul Sr. and Paul Teutul Jr. on Discovery Channel's reality show American Chopper1. Users overlay their own text on each panel to stage a mock debate, following a rhythm of claim, rebuttal, escalation, chair-throwing, and final accusatory point1. The template's five-panel exchange lets creators voice both sides of an argument in one image, and the meme is used for topics ranging from Star Wars to gender politics to Garfield the cat6.

The show stopped producing new episodes in 2010, so many people sharing the format never watched the original series1. The image stack runs tall rather than wide, and users complained the vertical layout displays awkwardly on smartphones6. In April 2018 a compressed side-by-side edit started circulating specifically to fit Twitter's crop preview3.

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Origin & Background

Platform

Reddit (comic template) / Twitter (2018 viral spread)

Date

2011

The scene comes from Season 6 Episode 1 of American Chopper, titled "NHL Bike B2 Bomber Bike," which aired April 9, 2009 on Discovery Channel3. In it, Paul Teutul Sr. calls his son into the office over Paul Jr. consistently showing up 45 minutes late to work at Orange County Choppers, the family's custom motorcycle shop in upstate New York2. The two escalate from raised voices to shouting, Paul Jr. throws a chair across the room, and Paul Sr. fires him before the episode ends5.

Redditors first turned the scene into an exploitable comic in late 2011, with the earliest strips appearing as a pair of Reddit posts that year4. Those first versions swapped the shouting dialogue for wholesome affirmations between the two Teutuls, an edit that stayed the default reading of the template for the next several years7.

How It Spread

The wholesome-swap template sat mostly dormant until late March 2018 delivered its breakout moment on Twitter1. A March 26, 2018 tweet by @_ericcurtin kicked off the revival, and within about two weeks that post reached roughly 55,000 likes and 17,000 retweets5. USA Today ran an explainer within days and noted the resurgence started quietly on Twitter before spreading fast4.

Photoshopped variants that swapped the Teutuls for characters from other franchises appeared on Twitter through late March and early April. Notable examples included an /r/MemeEconomy Garfield entry on March 27, a Prequel Memes crossover posted by FunnyJunk user lerky on March 31, a Frasier version by Twitter user @markpopham on April 4, and a Neon Genesis Evangelion recreation by @notebooklines on April 63.

Coverage piled up quickly. Mashable ran the first hot take on March 28, and Vice, CNET, Vox, Slate, and USA Today all published pieces between March 28 and April 10, 20187. Several outlets pointed out the timing matched Discovery's American Chopper reboot, scheduled to air in May 2018, and openly asked whether the meme's return was a marketing push2.

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How to Use This Meme

The format typically uses five stills in order: Paul Sr. speaking, Paul Jr. speaking back, Sr. yelling, Jr. throwing a chair, and Sr. red-faced and pointing1. Each panel gets a plain white text box overlaid, and the exchange usually follows a set structure of proposition, rebuttal, reaffirmation, second rebuttal, and final accusatory line1. Common convention is to pick a low-stakes or absurd debate topic, like whether Garfield contributes anything to society or whether Ewoks belong in Star Wars, and let both Teutuls take opposing sides6. Some creators skip the original stills entirely by photoshopping characters from other franchises into the exact same pose sequence, keeping the five-beat rhythm intact3.

Cultural Impact

Vox's Matthew Yglesias framed the format as a small pushback against Twitter's shallow dunking style, arguing that forcing an author to write both sides of an argument produced something closer to Platonic dialectic than a typical political post1. Slate placed the meme in its "Good on the Internet" column and treated the meta-conversation about vertical mobile layout as part of the fun rather than a knock against it6. Vice openly wondered whether the timing was guerilla marketing for the 2018 American Chopper reboot on Discovery2. USA Today ran an explainer aimed at readers who had seen the panels on Twitter without knowing what show they came from4. Mashable also flagged the reboot connection in its March 28 coverage7.

Fun Facts

Paul Sr. actually fires Paul Jr. by the end of the source episode, so the meme captures a real family split at Orange County Choppers2

CNET compared Paul Sr.'s red-faced fury to the Downfall clip that produced the "Hitler Reacts" template5

The vertical image stack prompted enough smartphone-display complaints that Twitter users rebuilt the panels side-by-side to fit the crop6

The March 2018 revival lined up almost exactly with Discovery's rebooted American Chopper series in May, prompting speculation about coordinated marketing7

Vox argued the format worked so well because its proposition-rebuttal rhythm mirrored the shape of a Platonic dialogue1

Derivatives & Variations

Wholesome dialogue swaps where the Teutuls affirm each other, first circulating on Reddit in 2011 and 2012[4]

Garfield-debate versions spotted across Twitter and Reddit in late March 2018[6]

Star Wars Ewok-debate variants[5]

Political variants covering U.S. interventionist policy[7]

Gender-politics versions built on the "All Women Are Queens" thot argument[6]

Blink-182 and redistricting crossovers referenced in CNET's coverage[5]