Big Brain Energy

2019Slang / catchphrasesemi-active

Published March 10, 2026 · Updated March 18, 2026

Also known as: BBE

Big Brain Energy is a slang phrase and meme format celebrating intelligence, clever thinking, or confident problem-solving. The term emerged around 2019 as a direct riff on "Big Dick Energy" (BDE), swapping sexual confidence for intellectual confidence. It sits at the intersection of several "big brain" meme lineages, including the Expanding Brain format, Big Brain Wojak, and PewDiePie's "Big Brain" catchphrase, all of which fed into the phrase's popularity across Twitter, Reddit, and TikTok1.

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Overview

Big Brain Energy describes someone who radiates intelligence or comes up with an unexpectedly smart solution. It's used both sincerely and ironically. When someone figures out how to fit a couch through a doorway using geometry, that's Big Brain Energy. When someone confidently declares that 10+9=19 by working through it from first principles, that's also Big Brain Energy1.

The phrase follows the "[X] Energy" snowclone template that exploded after Big Dick Energy went viral in mid-2018. Where BDE meant projecting quiet confidence without trying, BBE channels that same effortless vibe into the intellectual lane. It works as a compliment ("she definitely has big brain energy"), a challenge ("use your big brain energy to figure it out"), or self-aware irony when the "smart" move is actually ridiculous1.

Origin & Background

Platform
Twitter (phrase), Reddit (related meme formats)
Key People
Unknown
Date
2019

Big Brain Energy didn't emerge from a single post. It grew out of two colliding meme traditions in the late 2010s.

The first was Big Dick Energy, coined on June 8, 2018 by Toronto writer Kyrell Grant (@imbobswaget) as a tribute to the late Anthony Bourdain. The phrase blew up two weeks later when Ariana Grande appeared to confirm details about fiancé Pete Davidson in a since-deleted tweet, pushing BDE into mainstream vocabulary. Grant's original concept described gender-neutral confidence without cockiness, and the "[X] Energy" template spawned dozens of variants.

The second tradition was the broader "big brain" meme ecosystem. The Expanding Brain meme launched on January 31, 2017 when Reddit user janskishimanski posted the original to r/dankmemes, building on the "Whomst" meme. Big Brain Wojak appeared on 4chan's /pol/ board as early as November 2016, depicting a character with an absurdly enlarged cranium to mock pseudo-intellectuals. By 2019, PewDiePie and Markiplier had both adopted "big brain" as recurring catchphrases in their YouTube content.

The collision of BDE's "[X] Energy" format with the "big brain" meme family produced "Big Brain Energy" as a natural mashup. The phrase appeared organically on Twitter and TikTok through 2019-2020, with an Urban Dictionary entry for "Big Brain Energy (BBE)" formalized on September 10, 20201.

How It Spread

The phrase picked up steam on Twitter first, where the BDE format was already well-established. Users applied "Big Brain Energy" to everything from clever life hacks to sarcastic commentary on overconfident takes.

On Reddit, the related "Yeah, This Is Big Brain Time" format was already exploding. Markiplier's April 20, 2019 video "Baldi's Basics 1 Year Birthday Bash" featured a moment where his forehead was humorously enlarged via video editing. Redditor Z_2000 posted the first meme based on it to r/memes on April 27, 2019, earning over 10,100 upvotes. A follow-up post by ManyFnafb on May 31, 2019 to r/dankmemes earned 12,800 upvotes and kicked off a wave of variations, with one subsequent post hitting 70,300 upvotes.

PewDiePie's Minecraft Skyblock series with CinnamonToastKen, starting around July 2019, made "big brain" a catchphrase used ironically whenever he made questionable in-game decisions. The combination of Markiplier and PewDiePie using "big brain" to their combined audiences of 200+ million subscribers pushed the phrase deep into gaming and Gen Z culture.

On TikTok, "Big Brain Energy" adapted to short-form video through green screen templates, CapCut edits, and "Big Brain vs Small Brain" comedy skits comparing clever solutions to obvious failures.

Platforms

RedditTwitterTikTokInstagramYouTube
View on Google Trends

How to Use This Meme

Big Brain Energy works in a few common formats:

As a compliment: When someone comes up with a clever idea or creative solution, respond with "that's big brain energy right there." It's typically used for unexpected intelligence or a moment of surprising clarity.

As ironic praise: Sarcastically call something "big brain energy" when the solution is absurdly over-complicated or when someone states something obvious with extreme confidence. The irony is part of the fun.

As a caption: On TikTok and Instagram, creators caption videos of clever hacks, unexpected solutions, or impressively stupid-smart decisions with "big brain energy" or just the brain emoji scaling up.

In the template format: The related "Yeah, This Is Big Brain Time" image macro uses a still of Markiplier with an enlarged forehead, typically captioned with a situation where someone finds a creative (and often absurd) workaround.

Create Your Own

Cultural Impact

"Big Brain Energy" sits within a larger cultural moment where intelligence-related memes became a dominant category online. The "Galaxy Brain" variant of the Expanding Brain meme became so widely used in political commentary that the Daily Dot declared it "the meme that dominated discourse in 2017". New York Times writer-at-large Charlie Warzel named his Substack newsletter and podcast "Galaxy Brain" after the format.

The phrase crossed over from meme spaces into casual conversation and workplace Slack channels, functioning as a shorthand compliment for creative problem-solving. It also spawned the inverse: "small brain energy" or "smooth brain," used to describe someone making an obviously bad decision.

Dictionary.com added an entry for the related "Expanding Brain Meme," treating the broader "big brain" concept as a culturally significant internet format.

Fun Facts

Kyrell Grant, who coined "Big Dick Energy" in 2018, originally described it as a tribute to Anthony Bourdain. The "[X] Energy" format she created went on to generate dozens of variants including Big Brain Energy.

The Expanding Brain meme that inspired much of the "big brain" visual language was itself built on "Whomst," a mock-intellectual pronoun joke from Urban Dictionary in June 2016.

Big Brain Wojak predates the Expanding Brain meme by about two months, first appearing on 4chan in November 2016.

New York Magazine covered the "big brain" meme trend as early as February 2017, calling it part of 4chan's "Whomst" intelligence hierarchy.

Derivatives & Variations

"Yeah, This Is Big Brain Time"

— Markiplier-based image macro from April 2019, one of the most popular exploitable templates in the big brain family.

Galaxy Brain / Expanding Brain

— The original 2017 multi-panel format showing escalating levels of "intelligence" paired with increasingly absurd options.

Big Brain Wojak

— 4chan's 2016 illustration of a character with a massively enlarged cranium, used to mock pseudo-intellectualism.

"Small Brain Energy" / "Smooth Brain"

— The inverse of BBE, calling out obviously dumb decisions. Common on Reddit and Twitter[1].

PewDiePie Big Brain compilations

— Fan-edited YouTube compilations of PewDiePie's Minecraft moments using the "big brain" catchphrase.

Frequently Asked Questions