What is Bear Grylls Better Drink My Own Piss?

It's an image macro of survivalist Bear Grylls with two-line captions that always end in him drinking his own urine, poking fun at his willingness to do so on camera.

Where did Bear Grylls Better Drink My Own Piss come from?

Reddit user Faneste123 posted the first known version to r/pics on September 7, 2010, with the caption "The sun is going down / better drink my own piss".

What does Bear Grylls Better Drink My Own Piss mean?

The joke exaggerates a real Man vs. Wild moment where Grylls drank his urine to fight dehydration, turning it into his default fix for any problem.

How do you use Bear Grylls Better Drink My Own Piss?

Add Impact-font text over a headshot of Grylls: any absurd or trivial setup on top, and "Better drink my own piss" as the fixed punchline underneath.

Is Bear Grylls Better Drink My Own Piss still popular?

The meme peaked between 2010 and 2012 during the advice-animal era and is now treated as a classic of that period, with its shelf life outlasting Discovery's 2012 cancellation of Man vs. Wild.

Bear Grylls Better Drink My Own Piss

2010image macroclassic

Published August 16, 2026

Bear Grylls Better Drink My Own Piss is an image macro built around the survivalist's straight-faced photo, with captions where every scenario ends in him consuming his own urine1. The template took off on Reddit in September 2010 after a user riffed on a real Man vs. Wild scene where Grylls actually drank his pee to demonstrate a survival tactic3.

advice animals image macro memes reality tv origin memes snowclone memes early 2010s memes

Overview

Bear Grylls Better Drink My Own Piss is an image macro series that pairs a grim-faced photo of British survivalist Bear Grylls with two lines of Impact-font text, always ending with the punchline that he needs to drink his own urine1. The joke pulls from Grylls's Discovery show Man vs. Wild (aired as Born Survivor on Channel 4 in the UK), a survival series that debuted in 2006 and where Grylls performed increasingly extreme stunts, including consuming his own pee on camera4.

The format is a classic advice-animal macro: the top caption sets up any situation, no matter how mundane, and the bottom caption resolves it with the same fix. Mashable summed up the joke as Grylls being depicted drinking his pee "for no good reason," turning a real survival demonstration into a running punchline about overkill1.

Gallery

Origin & Background

Platform

Reddit (r/pics) / Meme Generator (viral spread)

Creator

Faneste123

Date

2010

On September 7, 2010, Reddit user Faneste123 posted a macro titled "The Sun Is Going Down" to r/pics, captioned "The sun is going down / better drink my own piss." The submission climbed to the front page and cleared 2,313 upvotes before archiving3. The caption pointed back to Episode 13 of Man vs. Wild, filmed in Kimberley, Australia, where Grylls actually drank his own urine on camera as a stated defense against dehydration4.

How It Spread

Image macros hit the advice-animal builder Meme Generator within days of Faneste123's post, and on September 8, 2010, BuzzFeed rounded them up in a piece titled "Survival Tips From Bear Grylls Meme." The humor site Barnorama picked up the format the next day, and a dedicated Quickmeme page went live in February 20113.

The meme jumped a tier once Grylls himself played along. On May 17, 2011, he tweeted, "In honour of all your @replies about pee drinking. am on vacation in LA. Looks like I'll have to drink my own pee!" with a TwitPic of himself sipping from a teacup. Mashable wrote it up the next day as an example of a celebrity flipping an internet joke into free goodwill, comparing the move to Chuck Norris embracing the Chuck Norris Facts jokes1. The tweet then hit Reddit's front page with over 2,000 upvotes, and Grylls followed up with a September 13, 2011 AMA where he answered questions via YouTube clips on the DegreeMen channel3.

The format outlived its own show. On March 13, 2012, The Hollywood Reporter revealed that Discovery Channel had terminated its relationship with Grylls over a contractual dispute after six seasons of Man vs. Wild2. Grylls tweeted a reassurance to fans the next day, joking that he would be back to drinking his own pee soon, and the macros kept getting reposted long after the show's cancellation.

How to Use This Meme

The template is usually made in Meme Generator or an equivalent tool. Drop a cropped, stern-faced headshot of Grylls in the frame and add two Impact-font lines: the top line sets up any scenario ("The sun is going down," "Found a stream," "Ran out of coffee"), and the bottom line always resolves with "Better drink my own piss." Some variants swap "piss" for "pee" or "urine," but the punchline structure stays fixed, playing on the idea that Grylls treats self-consumed pee as the answer to any inconvenience1.