What is Couple in a Red Car?

It is a two-panel exploitable meme using a pop-art stock image of a man and woman in a red convertible, where the second panel either kicks the woman out of the car or shows the couple kissing.

Where did Couple in a Red Car come from?

The art is a February 12th, 2016 stock illustration by Alexander Pokusay, and the earliest surviving meme using it is a September 17th, 2020 tweet from @amazing_haynes about Cobra Kai.

What does Couple in a Red Car mean?

The man asks the woman a question in panel one, and panel two shows whether he approves of the answer, with abandonment used as a petty dealbreaker gag and the kiss used as endorsement bait.

How do you use Couple in a Red Car?

Caption the first panel with a question or opinion test, then pair it with either the kick-out panel for a rejection joke or the kissing panel for an approval joke, a common convention since mid-2021.

Is Couple in a Red Car still popular?

The format hit peak virality in June 2021 and still gets reposts on Facebook and Twitter as a classic exploitable, though its heaviest activity was in 2020 and 2021.

Couple in a Red Car

2020exploitable image macroclassic

Published October 8, 2026

Couple in a Red Car is a two-panel exploitable meme built on a 2016 pop-art stock image of a man and woman riding together in a convertible. The format took hold in September 2020 when users captioned the panels so the man either ditches the woman on the roadside over some trivial dealbreaker or leans in for a kiss, growing into one of the most reposted exploitables across Facebook, Twitter and Instagram in 2021.

exploitable templates two panel memes stock photo exploitables bait and switch memes relationship memes

Overview

The meme uses two panels cropped from the same source illustration: a cheery pop-art drawing of a smiling couple cruising in a red convertible1. In the first panel the man asks the woman something, and the second panel shows the punchline, either the woman standing alone on the roadside after being dumped out, or the pair kissing when the answer wins him over3.

The kick-out variant is the earlier one and reads as a petty dealbreaker joke, with the man abandoning the woman over fandoms, music taste, trivia or opinions he treats as non-negotiable2. The kissing variant flips the premise into agreement bait, where the woman endorses the poster's favorite band, movie or hot take and gets rewarded with a smooch6. Both versions depend on the stiff, cheerful pop-art faces staying identical while the captions carry all the comedic weight.

Gallery

Origin & Background

Platform

Facebook / Twitter (viral spread)

Date

2020

The underlying artwork was uploaded on February 12th, 2016 by Ukrainian illustrator Alexander Pokusay, who sold it as a vector pop-art stock image on sites including Vectorstock, Shutterstock and Dreamstime1. The two-panel edit that strips the car's roof and places the woman outside in frame two is of unknown authorship.

The earliest meme using the format was posted in September 2020 by the Facebook page Cobra Kai Kompanion, though that post is no longer online3. On September 17th, 2020, Twitter user @amazing_haynes reposted the same image, in which the man kicks the woman out after learning she has never heard of the Cobra Kai TV series2. This remains the earliest surviving example of the template.

How It Spread

Spanish-language pages picked up the format almost immediately. On September 18th, 2020, Facebook page Reg Ska posted a Spanish version that pulled over 220 reactions and 310 shares within a year4. Tumblr saw an isolated English post from nineinchnailsmemes on September 30th, and on October 3rd Facebook page Memessbk ran a three-post set that kept the format circulating through late 20203.

The first English version to actually go viral surfaced in early January 2021, with Facebook page I'm a lil hii memes reposting it on January 12th and racking up more than 510 reactions and 3,100 shares over nine months5. Music-themed takes drove the next wave, including a May 16th, 2021 tweet from @LaflameScott that pulled roughly 2,100 retweets and 10,600 likes7. K-pop fandoms, especially EXO stans, flooded Facebook and Instagram with the format in early June 20213.

On June 11th, 2021, Twitter account @TeamDreamville posted the earliest widely seen version of the alternate kissing template, which gained around 4,000 retweets and 15,800 likes6. One day later, @itsdannyneary's take blew past both variants with roughly 25,000 retweets and 172,400 likes, making it the single biggest post in the format's run8.

Timeline

2016-02-12

Alexander Pokusay uploads the pop-art couple-in-a-car illustration to Vectorstock, Shutterstock and Dreamstime.