What is Best I Can Do Is?

An image macro catchphrase format drawn from Rick Harrison on Pawn Stars, where he answers an item appraisal with an insulting lowball offer.

Where did Best I Can Do Is come from?

Rick Harrison said the line often on Pawn Stars, and Redditor Kilser posted the earliest archived meme version to r/memes on April 8, 2012.

What does Best I Can Do Is mean?

The joke sets up something clearly valuable, then undercuts it with a tiny counteroffer, playing on Harrison's reputation for stingy appraisals on the show.

How do you use Best I Can Do Is?

People start with a photo of Harrison and add top text naming a valuable item or situation, then bottom text giving an absurdly low offer like "Best I Can Do Is $20".

Best I Can Do Is

Q: Is Best I Can Do Is still popular?

The format saw a 2019 revival on r/dankmemes, where a repost by OverIntention reached around 30,000 upvotes within six months, keeping the catchphrase in circulation on meme feeds after its 2012 origin.

2012image macro / catchphraseclassic

Published October 22, 2026

Rick Harrison repeated the line "best I can do is X" across seasons of Pawn Stars, delivering insultingly low offers after an expert appraisal. By April 2012, Redditors were turning the catchphrase into a dedicated image macro format, splitting it off from earlier Advice Animals jokes about Harrison and locking the structure to the lowball punchline.

catchphrase memes reality tv origin memes advice animals image macro memes snowclone memes

Overview

A typical post shows a still of Rick Harrison from Pawn Stars with two lines of caption. The top line names an item or situation worth real money, and the bottom line gives Harrison's answer: "Best I Can Do Is $20" or some similarly tiny number. The joke works off Harrison's deadpan screen presence and his reputation for insulting counteroffers on the show3.

Later edits apply the structure beyond physical objects, so the "item" might be an abstract thing like a job offer, a relationship, or a situation the poster is complaining about, and the counteroffer is an absurd nonsense trade4. Pawn Stars viewers already associate Harrison with these cheap appraisals, since he actually delivered them across multiple seasons of the show, which fans assembled into supercut compilations on YouTube1.

Gallery

Origin & Background

Platform

Pawn Stars (TV source) / Reddit (viral spread)

Date

2012

Rick Harrison said "best I can do is X" throughout the run of Pawn Stars, the History series set at his Las Vegas pawn shop, where a customer would describe an item, an expert would appraise it, and Harrison would answer with a number many viewers considered a lowball1. In mid-2010, Harrison first appeared as the face of an Advice Animals macro, with top text naming something valuable and bottom text giving his cheap offer, according to Know Your Meme3.

By early 2012, the generic Advice Animals use split off into a dedicated "Best I Can Do Is" format focused entirely on the lowball punchline. Redditor Kilser posted the earliest archived example to r/memes on April 8, 2012, where the thread picked up five upvotes before being archived2.

How It Spread

After the 2012 debut, Best I Can Do Is circulated as a steady supply of image macros on Reddit and image boards, drawing on Harrison's recurring on-screen counteroffers instead of any single viral post3. Compilation videos of his actual lowball offers also did the rounds on YouTube, giving creators fresh material to caption and remix1.

Years later, the format saw renewed interest on r/dankmemes, where Redditor OverIntention posted a Best I Can Do Is image on August 9, 2019, that reached around 30,000 upvotes within six months4. That 2019 post reintroduced the macro to a newer audience that mostly knew Pawn Stars through older clips and reposts rather than live viewings of the show.

Across both periods, the appeal stayed the same: a setup that promises a big appraisal and a punchline that insults the asker. Even as Advice Animals formats fell out of fashion, Best I Can Do Is survived because the structure sits entirely inside one catchphrase and one face3.

Timeline

2010

Rick Harrison appears in Advice Animals macros making lowball offers on items described in the top text, according to Know Your Meme.

2012-04-08

Redditor Kilser posts the earliest archived Best I Can Do Is image macro to r/memes, which picks up five upvotes before being archived.

2019-08-09

Redditor OverIntention posts a Best I Can Do Is version to r/dankmemes that reaches around 30,000 upvotes within six months.

How to Use This Meme

People typically start with a still of Harrison, often an expression that reads as unimpressed, and attach a two-part caption. The top line names a valuable item or situation, and the bottom line gives Harrison's answer, usually "Best I Can Do Is" followed by an insultingly small number. A common convention is to exaggerate the appraisal in the setup and keep the counteroffer short and specific, like "$20" or "fifty cents."