# I Don't Even Know Who You Are

> I Don't Even Know Who You Are" is a 2019 reaction-image meme from *Avengers: Endgame*, featuring Thanos dismissing Scarlet Witch's emotions with his indifferent line, used to express apathy toward someone's feelings about you.

"I Don't Even Know Who You Are" is a reaction meme from the 2019 Marvel film *Avengers: Endgame*, where Thanos dismisses Scarlet Witch's grief with the line "I don't even know who you are." The still image and quote spread across Reddit within days of the film's premiere, becoming a go-to format for expressing indifference toward someone who holds a grudge or strong feelings about you.

## Origin
*Avengers: Endgame* premiered in the United States on April 26, 2019[2]. The film was written by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely and directed by Anthony and Joe Russo[2]. The specific scene involves a 2014 version of Thanos who has been transported to the present via time travel and therefore has no knowledge of the events of *Avengers: Infinity War*[2]. When Scarlet Witch confronts him with fury over what he did, his confused "I don't even know who you are" landed as both a dramatic beat and an instantly memeable moment[3].

- **Platform:** Reddit (viral spread), *Avengers: Endgame* (source material)
- **Creator:** Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely (screenwriters), Josh Brolin (actor / Thanos), Elizabeth Olsen (actor / Scarlet Witch)
- **Date:** 2019

## Overview
The meme uses a screenshot of Thanos, played by Josh Brolin, during a confrontation with Scarlet Witch in *Avengers: Endgame*. In the scene, Scarlet Witch tells Thanos he "took everything from her," referring to the death of Vision in the previous film. Thanos, who has time-traveled from 2014 and has no memory of those events, replies that he doesn't even know who she is[3]. The format works because of the raw contrast between one character's intense emotional investment and the other's total lack of recognition. People use it to caption situations where someone cares deeply about a conflict that the other party is completely unaware of.

## How It Spread
The meme format picked up speed almost immediately after the film opened. On April 27, 2019, just one day after the US premiere, Reddit user godzillerie posted a version to /r/EndgameSpoilers that collected over 1,200 upvotes[3]. That same day, user NotFGordan posted another variant that picked up 480 upvotes in the subreddit[3].

Over the following weeks, the format migrated to larger subreddits. /r/thanosdidnothingwrong, already a hub for Thanos memes since the Infinity War "snap" event of 2018, adopted the template quickly[3]. /r/dankmemes also saw regular posts using the format[3]. The meme's appeal was straightforward: the two-panel setup (Scarlet Witch's accusation paired with Thanos's dismissal) made it easy to relabel for any situation involving one-sided rivalry or unreciprocated grudges.

The format fits within a broader tradition of dismissal memes. Mariah Carey's "I don't know her" remark about Jennifer Lopez, originally from a circa 2003 German TV interview, followed a similar template of high-profile indifference and became one of the most widely shared reaction GIFs of the 2010s[1]. Carey repeated variations of the phrase for nearly two decades across interviews with MTV, TMZ, and *Watch What Happens Live*[1]. *Vanity Fair* even labeled mid-2016 "The Summer of Not Knowing" after multiple celebrities adopted similar dismissive responses[1]. The Thanos version tapped into the same comedic nerve but wrapped it in MCU fandom, giving it a different audience and visual language.

*Endgame* itself provided fertile ground for memes. The film grossed nearly $2.8 billion worldwide, briefly becoming the highest-grossing film of all time[2]. With that kind of cultural saturation, individual scenes spread rapidly through online communities. The "I don't even know who you are" exchange stood out because it worked as a standalone joke without requiring deep MCU knowledge.

## How to Use
The standard format is a two-panel image macro:
1. **Top panel:** Scarlet Witch (or a labeled version of her) says "You took everything from me," representing someone with strong feelings about a situation.
2. **Bottom panel:** Thanos (labeled as the other party) responds "I don't even know who you are," representing complete indifference.

## Cultural Impact
The line benefits from being part of *Avengers: Endgame*, which was one of the most commercially successful films in cinema history with a budget estimated between $356 and $400 million[2]. The film's cultural footprint meant that even casual moviegoers recognized the scene. The meme also sits within a larger category of MCU-derived formats, joining templates like "I am inevitable" and the time-travel "I see this as an absolute win" from the same film.

The dismissal meme archetype has a long pop culture lineage. Scholars Mireille Lalancette and Tamara A. Small analyzed Mariah Carey's "I don't know her" as a rhetorical move where "another person is so irrelevant you pretend to not know them when you clearly do"[1]. The Thanos version inverts this slightly: his ignorance is genuine, not performed, which gives the meme an extra layer of comedic cruelty.

## Fun Facts
- The 2014 version of Thanos who appears in the final battle genuinely has never met Scarlet Witch, since in the MCU timeline he was pulled forward in time before the events of *Infinity War*[2].
- *Avengers: Endgame* held the record for highest-grossing film of all time from July 2019 to March 2021, when *Avatar* reclaimed the title through a re-release[2].
- /r/thanosdidnothingwrong became a major meme hub after its "snap" event in July 2018 randomly banned half its subscribers to mirror Thanos's actions, priming the community for Endgame memes the following year[3].
- Mariah Carey's structurally similar "I don't know her" dismissal predates the Thanos meme by about 16 years, originating around 2003[1].

## Frequently Asked Questions
### What is "I Don't Even Know Who You Are"?
It's a reaction meme based on a scene from *Avengers: Endgame* (2019) where Thanos responds to Scarlet Witch's accusation with complete indifference, saying he doesn't even know who she is[3].

### Where did "I Don't Even Know Who You Are" come from?
The quote comes from the 2019 film *Avengers: Endgame*, which premiered in the US on April 26, 2019[2]. The meme format spread on Reddit starting the very next day[3].

### What does "I Don't Even Know Who You Are" mean?
The meme expresses a situation where one party has intense feelings (anger, rivalry, resentment) toward another party who is completely unaware of or indifferent to their existence[3].

### How do you use "I Don't Even Know Who You Are"?
Label the Scarlet Witch panel as someone with a grievance and the Thanos panel as the oblivious target. The humor comes from the mismatch between emotional investment and total indifference[3].

### Is "I Don't Even Know Who You Are" still popular?
The format saw its peak popularity in mid-2019 following the film's release. It still gets used in MCU fan communities and meme subreddits, though less frequently than during its initial viral period[3].

### Who says the line in Avengers: Endgame?
Thanos, played by Josh Brolin, says "I don't even know who you are" to Scarlet Witch, played by Elizabeth Olsen, during the film's climactic battle[2].

### Why doesn't Thanos recognize Scarlet Witch?
The Thanos in the final battle is a 2014 version who time-traveled to the present. He was pulled from a point before the events of *Infinity War*, so he never encountered Scarlet Witch or destroyed the Mind Stone[2].

### Is this meme related to Mariah Carey's "I don't know her"?
Both memes share the same comedic structure of dismissive indifference, but they originated independently. Carey's version comes from a circa 2003 TV interview about Jennifer Lopez and became a major GIF and reaction meme in its own right[1].

### What subreddits were the first to use this meme?
The earliest examples appeared on /r/EndgameSpoilers on April 27, 2019, before spreading to /r/thanosdidnothingwrong and /r/dankmemes[3].

## References
1. [I don't know her](<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_don%27t_know_her>)
2. [Avengers: Endgame](<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avengers%3A_Endgame>)
3. [I Don't Even Know Who You Are - Know Your Meme](<https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/i-dont-even-know-who-you-are>)

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