Bad Guys vs. John Wick is an image macro built around the running gag from the John Wick film series where Keanu Reeves' hitman can turn any household object into a lethal weapon, most famously a pencil1. The format typically pairs a grinning shot of Wick holding some innocuous item with a caption written from the perspective of enemies who thought they had him beaten once he ran out of bullets2.

The humor works because the joke is self-aware about the movies themselves. Characters in John Wick: Chapter 2 openly warn each other about the pencil kill, so the meme just extends that anxiety to any object a poster wants to swap in1. Later variants cycle through crayons, staplers and other harmless props to keep the punchline fresh3.

To make one, people typically pair a still of Keanu Reeves as John Wick holding a specific item, often a pencil or a crayon, with a two-line caption. The common convention writes the villains' relieved reaction first ("finally we are going to kill John Wick") and then Wick's move (picking up the object). Swapping the object for something even more absurd is the usual way to riff on the template.