# Ben Swolo Ben Swolo is a photoshop and image macro joke built around the shirtless Kylo Ren scene in Star Wars: The Last Jedi, which hit theaters on December 14th, 2017. The name fuses Ren's birth name Ben Solo with the slang term 'swole,' and the format took off through fan edits of Adam Driver's surprisingly built physique and his very high-waisted pants. ## Overview Ben Swolo is a photoshop and image macro joke built around a single shirtless shot of Kylo Ren, played by Adam Driver, from Star Wars: The Last Jedi[1]. The name smashes Ren's birth name Ben Solo together with 'swole,' the internet slang for someone with visibly built muscle[5]. The joke rides on how surprisingly ripped Driver looks in the brief scene, plus the almost cartoonishly high waistline of his pants[5]. Fans turned that one still into a running edit format, ranging from planet-sized Kylo hovering over horizons to tiny 'Smol Ben Swolo' cutouts. The meme lives mostly through image edits rather than any fixed caption template, and it stays tied to the specific 2017 scene it comes from[1]. ## How It Spread On December 15th, 2017, BuzzFeed published a roundup of thirsty Twitter reactions titled 'People Were Very Affected By Shirtless Kylo Ren In The Last Jedi And They Had FEEL-INGS'[1]. The tweets it collected ranged from all-caps shock at the scene existing to jokes about wanting shirtless Kylo action figures, treating Adam Driver's physique as the film's real headline[1]. On December 18th, a 9gag user [3] uploaded a photoshop of Kylo rising over a planet's horizon under the title 'Ben Swolo,' pulling more than 3,200 points and 65 comments[4]. That same day, Imgur user toasttwithjam posted a gallery called 'Smol Ben Swolo dump,' which flipped the joke by shrinking Kylo instead of blowing him up[4]. Two days later, YouTube channel LoLiKitty x /2nd channel uploaded a remix of the scene that pulled over 118,000 views in its first week. On December 24th, Redditor TheRed_Reaper [6] posted a Kim Jong-un Watching Television edit with shirtless Kylo pasted onto the TV screen while Kim fist-pumps in approval. The post hit around 1,900 points at 98% upvotes on r/dankmemes within 48 hours. ## How to Use The template typically starts from the same source still of Kylo Ren standing shirtless in his high-waisted pants[5]. Common conventions include shrinking him into 'Smol Ben Swolo' cutouts, blowing him up to planetary scale, or dropping him into other pop culture screenshots, with the punchline usually landing on his physique or the pants themselves[1]. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is Ben Swolo? A photoshop meme built from a shirtless Kylo Ren shot in Star Wars: The Last Jedi, mashing his birth name Ben Solo with the slang 'swole'[5]. ### Where did Ben Swolo come from? A 4chan /tv/ thread on December 14th, 2017 first shared the screenshot, and edits spread across Twitter, 9gag and Imgur over the following days[4]. ### What does Ben Swolo mean? 'Swolo' fuses Ben Solo with 'swole,' internet shorthand for muscular, joking about how built Adam Driver looked in the scene[5]. ### How do you use Ben Swolo? People photoshop the shirtless still into other images, either as a giant looming figure or a tiny cutout, playing on his physique and the high-waisted pants[1]. ### Is Ben Swolo still popular? It peaked in December 2017 alongside the film's release and stuck around as a classic Star Wars fan joke referenced whenever the shirtless scene comes up[1]. ## References 1. [https://www.buzzfeed.com/crystalro/people-who-are-thirsty-af-for-kylo-ren-and-need-jesus-or]() 2. [https://twitter.com/jediren_]() 3. [https://9gag.com/]() 4. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/ben-swolo]() 5. [https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Ben%20Swolo]() 6. [https://www.reddit.com/r/dankmemes/]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/ben-swolo Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library