Crayon Eater Marines Eat Crayons is a catchphrase and image-macro joke used by other branches of the US military, and by Marines themselves, to poke fun at the perceived low intelligence of the United States Marine Corps1. The joke pictures Marines mistaking Crayolas for food, riffing on the older stereotype that eating crayons is something toddlers and dim kids do3. Other branches shorten the insult by calling Marines 'Crayon Eaters,' a nickname that sits alongside older ones like 'jarhead,' 'leatherneck' and 'bullet sponge'2.

The format shows up as captioned photos of Marines with mouths full of crayons, cartoon comics where an Army soldier hands a Marine a helmet packed with glue and crayons, and TikTok videos where creators eat, review or hand out crayons on camera6. Marines took the insult and ran with it, turning up at military balls and social media posts munching crayons on purpose6. The joke often gets paired with the backronym MARINE, standing for 'Muscles Are Required, Intelligence Not Essential'6.

Using the format typically means leaning into the 'Marines are dumb' bit rather than defending against it. Common versions include photos or videos of a Marine eating a crayon straight from the box, image macros of an Army or Navy character offering a Marine crayons as bait or reward, and captioned reaction images where a Marine's answer to any question is 'crayons.' Non-Marines often use the joke as a friendly inter-service insult, while Marines typically flip it into a badge of honor, with the MARINE backronym or lines like 'we know, we eat crayons' as the punchline4.