Couple in a Red Car — Pop-art illustration of a man driving a red car with a woman in the passenger seat

Couple in a Red Car

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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.

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.

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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.

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Frequently Asked Questions