Draw Me Like One of Your French Girls

2008catchphraseclassic

Published August 31, 2026

A quote from the 1997 film Titanic that became a caption template for photos of people and pets posing in a mock-alluring position. After lying dormant for over a decade, it exploded in 2011 when a Tumblr user slapped the line on a pug, spawning one of the internet's most enduring reclining-pose image macros.

movie quote memescatchphrase memesexploitable templatesdelayed virality memestumblr memes

Overview

"Draw Me Like One of Your French Girls" is a line Rose says to Jack in James Cameron's 1997 blockbuster Titanic1, and the internet turned it into a caption template for any subject caught in a stretched-out, faux-seductive pose. The joke works because it collides Kate Winslet's soft-focus boudoir moment with the least glamorous possible subject, usually a sprawled pet, a chubby toddler, or a cartoon character lying on a couch.

The format is almost always a single photo with the phrase overlaid as top text, sometimes trimmed to just "Draw me like one of your French girls" and sometimes cropped with the punchline implied. Pugs, cats, walruses and other visibly unbothered animals dominate the tag, though the line is also quoted verbatim as a spoken punchline whenever someone drapes themselves across a sofa23. It later spawned a whole meta layer of Photoshopped remixes of the actual Titanic scene, with Jack sketching everything from Draw Something app doodles to Iron Man3.

Origin & Background

Platform
Titanic (film) / Tumblr (viral spread)
Creator
James Cameron; Tumblr user meguhime
Date
2008

The phrase originates from Titanic (1997), where Rose (Kate Winslet) hands Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio) the Heart of the Ocean and tells him, "I want you to draw me like one of your French girls"1. The scene, which ends with the famous nude portrait, was uploaded to YouTube and became the canonical clip people would cite when the line went viral2.

Comedic use of the quote traces back to 2008. A Moviefone caption contest paired it with a still of Tony Stark showing his arc reactor to Obadiah Stane in Iron Man, and on May 4, 2008 an I Can Has Cheezburger LOLcat image macro used the phrase for what is credited as the first image macro instance of the joke3.

How It Spread

The catchphrase sat mostly quiet until January 7, 2011, when Tumblr user meguhime captioned a photo of a plump pug (originally shot by Flickr user mylulabelles) with the line. The post picked up more than 11,000 notes in under 24 hours and became the image most people now associate with the meme3. Humor blogs Pleated Jeans and I Has A Hot Dog reposted it within days, and by July 5, 2011 Uproxx had run a roundup slideshow of standout entries in the series3.

The format kept mutating on other platforms. On May 27, 2012 a 9gag user posted a Photoshopped screencap of the Titanic scene with Jack sketching in the Draw Something mobile app, which pulled in tens of thousands of upvotes and thousands of Facebook shares3. Tumblr's dedicated tag for the phrase became the main hub for new entries, filling up with reclining pugs, cats, babies and cartoon characters3.

In March 2013, iOS developer APPEK cashed in on the joke directly by releasing French Girls, an app where users uploaded photos of themselves for anonymous strangers to sketch. Gizmodo, Fast Code Design and Softpedia all covered the launch, treating the meme as the cultural setup for the product's punchline45.

How to Use This Meme

The typical setup is a single photo of a subject lying down, ideally sprawled or belly-up, with the phrase "Draw me like one of your French girls" or the shortened "Like one of your French girls" set as top-of-image caption. Pets in unflattering poses are the most common convention, but the line often works as a spoken caption too, dropped whenever someone drapes themselves across furniture in a photo. The Titanic scene itself is a popular canvas for Photoshop edits, with Jack's sketchpad swapped for whatever app, game or character the poster wants to riff on3.

Frequently Asked Questions

Draw Me Like One of Your French Girls

2008catchphraseclassic

Published August 31, 2026

A quote from the 1997 film Titanic that became a caption template for photos of people and pets posing in a mock-alluring position. After lying dormant for over a decade, it exploded in 2011 when a Tumblr user slapped the line on a pug, spawning one of the internet's most enduring reclining-pose image macros.

movie quote memes catchphrase memes exploitable templates delayed virality memes tumblr memes

Overview

"Draw Me Like One of Your French Girls" is a line Rose says to Jack in James Cameron's 1997 blockbuster Titanic1, and the internet turned it into a caption template for any subject caught in a stretched-out, faux-seductive pose. The joke works because it collides Kate Winslet's soft-focus boudoir moment with the least glamorous possible subject, usually a sprawled pet, a chubby toddler, or a cartoon character lying on a couch.

The format is almost always a single photo with the phrase overlaid as top text, sometimes trimmed to just "Draw me like one of your French girls" and sometimes cropped with the punchline implied. Pugs, cats, walruses and other visibly unbothered animals dominate the tag, though the line is also quoted verbatim as a spoken punchline whenever someone drapes themselves across a sofa23. It later spawned a whole meta layer of Photoshopped remixes of the actual Titanic scene, with Jack sketching everything from Draw Something app doodles to Iron Man3.

Origin & Background

Platform
Titanic (film) / Tumblr (viral spread)
Creator
James Cameron; Tumblr user meguhime
Date
2008

The phrase originates from Titanic (1997), where Rose (Kate Winslet) hands Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio) the Heart of the Ocean and tells him, "I want you to draw me like one of your French girls"1. The scene, which ends with the famous nude portrait, was uploaded to YouTube and became the canonical clip people would cite when the line went viral2.

Comedic use of the quote traces back to 2008. A Moviefone caption contest paired it with a still of Tony Stark showing his arc reactor to Obadiah Stane in Iron Man, and on May 4, 2008 an I Can Has Cheezburger LOLcat image macro used the phrase for what is credited as the first image macro instance of the joke3.

How It Spread

The catchphrase sat mostly quiet until January 7, 2011, when Tumblr user meguhime captioned a photo of a plump pug (originally shot by Flickr user mylulabelles) with the line. The post picked up more than 11,000 notes in under 24 hours and became the image most people now associate with the meme3. Humor blogs Pleated Jeans and I Has A Hot Dog reposted it within days, and by July 5, 2011 Uproxx had run a roundup slideshow of standout entries in the series3.

The format kept mutating on other platforms. On May 27, 2012 a 9gag user posted a Photoshopped screencap of the Titanic scene with Jack sketching in the Draw Something mobile app, which pulled in tens of thousands of upvotes and thousands of Facebook shares3. Tumblr's dedicated tag for the phrase became the main hub for new entries, filling up with reclining pugs, cats, babies and cartoon characters3.

In March 2013, iOS developer APPEK cashed in on the joke directly by releasing French Girls, an app where users uploaded photos of themselves for anonymous strangers to sketch. Gizmodo, Fast Code Design and Softpedia all covered the launch, treating the meme as the cultural setup for the product's punchline45.

How to Use This Meme

The typical setup is a single photo of a subject lying down, ideally sprawled or belly-up, with the phrase "Draw me like one of your French girls" or the shortened "Like one of your French girls" set as top-of-image caption. Pets in unflattering poses are the most common convention, but the line often works as a spoken caption too, dropped whenever someone drapes themselves across furniture in a photo. The Titanic scene itself is a popular canvas for Photoshop edits, with Jack's sketchpad swapped for whatever app, game or character the poster wants to riff on3.

Frequently Asked Questions