# Crayon Eater Marines Eat Crayons
Crayon Eater Marines Eat Crayons is a running military joke claiming that US Marines are dumb enough to snack on crayons, born from inter-service rivalry inside the American armed forces. The gag surfaced on Imgur and Facebook in the mid-2010s and got so big that Marines embraced it themselves, spawning edible crayon merchandise and an official 2018 National Crayon Day video from the Marine Corps.
## Overview
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 Corps[1]. The joke pictures Marines mistaking Crayolas for food, riffing on the older stereotype that eating crayons is something toddlers and dim kids do[3]. 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 camera[6]. Marines took the insult and ran with it, turning up at military balls and social media posts munching crayons on purpose[6]. The joke often gets paired with the backronym MARINE, standing for 'Muscles Are Required, Intelligence Not Essential'[6].
## How It Spread
The Facebook page Untied Status Marin Crops, known for posting deliberately misspelled Dolan and Spoderman-style memes, is often credited with pushing the crayon joke into wider circulation[3]. Two of its early crayon posts, from May 12, 2017 and October 3, 2017, pulled in roughly 700 and 1,500 likes respectively over the next five years[3]. From there the gag jumped to Reddit and Quora threads, where service members from every branch traded variations of the insult[5].
By 2018 the Marine Corps itself was in on the joke. On National Crayon Day that year, March 31, the official Marine Corps Facebook account posted a video showing a Marine opening an MRE supposedly gifted by the Army and finding crayons inside[6]. Task & Purpose later described the clip as the Corps 'making light of the joke' rather than pushing back on it[1].
TikTok took the trend into the 2020s. On January 28, 2021, creator @sweetsupportusa posted a video joking about Marines eating crayons that pulled in more than 890,000 plays and 170,000 likes within a year[3]. On October 2, 2021, TikToker @bigwill1997 posted a lore explainer about the crayon joke that racked up over 50,000 plays and 3,000 likes in three months[3]. The USMC-themed T-shirt and merch scene picked it up around the same time, with brands treating 'Crayon Eater' as a badge of honor[4].
## How to Use
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 punchline[4].
## Frequently Asked Questions
### What is Crayon Eater Marines Eat Crayons?
It's a running military joke that claims US Marines are so dumb they eat crayons, spread as image macros, TikToks and edible-crayon merch since the mid-2010s[1].
### Where did Crayon Eater Marines Eat Crayons come from?
The earliest known meme was posted to Imgur on August 24, 2016 by a user named HarlemStruggle, though Mil Treats traces the underlying joke to a 2012 Army-vs-Marine cartoon[3][6].
### What does Crayon Eater Marines Eat Crayons mean?
It's an inter-service insult mocking the perceived low intelligence of the US Marine Corps, in the same family as older nicknames like 'jarhead' and 'bullet sponge'[2].
### How do you use Crayon Eater Marines Eat Crayons?
People post photos or videos of Marines eating crayons, share cartoons of Army soldiers handing Marines helmets full of crayons, or drop the MARINE backronym ('Muscles Are Required, Intelligence Not Essential') as the punchline[6].
### Is Crayon Eater Marines Eat Crayons still popular?
The joke is a fixture of modern US military humor and got fresh life on TikTok in 2021, with videos like @sweetsupportusa's pulling more than 890,000 plays[3].
### Why do people say Marines eat crayons?
Other military branches use the crayon gag to tease Marines about their reputation for being tough but academically 'rough around the edges,' a stereotype rooted in friendly inter-service rivalry[4].
### Who started the Marines eat crayons joke?
No single creator is credited, but the Facebook page Untied Status Marin Crops helped push it mainstream with Dolan and Spoderman-style posts in May and October 2017[3].
### Did the Marine Corps respond to the crayon joke?
The Corps embraced it publicly, posting a Facebook video on National Crayon Day, March 31, 2018, showing a Marine opening an MRE from the Army and finding crayons inside[6].
### Are there real edible crayons for Marines?
Marine veteran Frank Manteau developed Crayons Ready-to-Eat, colorable chocolate crayons made with chocolatier Cassandra Gordon after three months of research[2].
### What does the MARINE backronym mean?
It stands for 'Muscles Are Required, Intelligence Not Essential,' and shows up alongside the crayon joke as a self-deprecating punchline in Marine-themed posts[6].
### Was the crayon joke around before the internet?
Task & Purpose's reporting suggests it's a fairly recent invention, with Terminal Lance creator Maximilian Uriarte confirming there was 'no mention of crayons' when he left the Corps in 2010[1].
## References
1. [https://taskandpurpose.com/culture/marines-eat-crayons-joke-history/]()
2. [https://www.military.com/veteran-jobs/no-joke-marine-corps-veteran-developed-crayons-ready-eat.html]()
3. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/marines-eat-crayons]()
4. [https://www.usamm.com/blogs/news/marines-and-crayons]()
5. [https://www.operationmilitarykids.org/marines-and-crayons-whats-the-deal/]()
6. [https://miltreats.com/pages/crayoneater]()
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