What is Every Masterpiece Has Its Cheap Copy?

It is a two-panel image macro that labels one item a 'masterpiece' and a visually similar item a 'cheap copy,' used both sincerely and ironically to compare franchises, characters or media.

Where did Every Masterpiece Has Its Cheap Copy come from?

The format began in Russia in June 2015 as 'Неповторимый оригинал и жалкая пародия,' first documented in a 1001mem post by user FREON on June 3rd, 2015.

What does Every Masterpiece Has Its Cheap Copy mean?

The two labels declare one thing the authentic original and the other a lesser imitation, though ironic versions deliberately flip the hierarchy to troll viewers.

How do you use Every Masterpiece Has Its Cheap Copy?

Stack two related images, tag the top as 'masterpiece' and the bottom as 'cheap copy,' then either argue your taste honestly or bait fans by naming the clearly superior work as the copy, which is how posts like the Fortnite vs. Breath of the Wild edit went viral.

Is Every Masterpiece Has Its Cheap Copy still popular?

After the June 2021 peak driven by Dragon Ball and Zelda edits, the template became a classic franchise-war tool that fans still reach for when dunking on a rival property.

Every Masterpiece Has Its Cheap Copy

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Published October 9, 2026

Every Masterpiece Has Its Cheap Copy is a two-panel comparison meme that labels one item an original 'masterpiece' and the other a 'cheap copy,' usually ironically. The format began on Russian social media in 2015, hopped to Spanish-speaking Facebook pages in 2017, and became one of the most reposted franchise-vs-franchise brawl templates of June 2021.

two panel memes fandom discourse memes bait and switch memes spanish origin memes exploitable templates

Overview

Every Masterpiece Has Its Cheap Copy, also known as Toda Obra Maestra Tiene Una Copia Barata in Spanish and Неповторимый оригинал и жалкая пародия (translated from Russian as 'Inimitable Original vs. Pathetic Copy'), works through a strict two-panel setup. The top image is tagged as the authentic 'masterpiece' and the bottom image is tagged as the imitator 'cheap copy,' letting fans stake tribal claims about which franchise, character or celebrity came first and did it better1.

The joke flips between sincere and ironic. A sincere version might crown a classic film over its remake, while the ironic register pairs the two in bad faith, with the 'cheap copy' panel actually showing a wildly superior or just absurdly unrelated piece of media2. That bait-and-switch is why fans of SpongeBob, Star Wars, Dragon Ball and Zelda keep recycling the template: the labels are so blunt they beg to be used dishonestly3.

Visually the format is bare-bones, usually a plain stacked collage with the two slogans burned into the image, which is part of why it moved so easily between Russian, Spanish and English speaking communities without needing a redesign4.

Gallery

Origin & Background

Platform

1001mem (Russia) / Facebook (Spanish and English spread)

Date

2015

The format started in Russia in mid-2015 as Неповторимый оригинал и жалкая пародия ('Inimitable Original vs. Pathetic Copy'). The earliest known public post using the layout was uploaded to the meme site 1001mem by user FREON on June 3rd, 2015, though whether FREON actually designed the template or just reposted it is not confirmed5. Through the rest of 2015 the two-panel caption spread across Russian-speaking VK6 and Twitter accounts, including a widely shared edit from @w0rld_destr0yer in October of that year7.

The Spanish-language rebrand arrived in April 2017. On April 6th, 2017, the Facebook page FAN10 posted what is cited as the earliest known Spanish-language version under the title Toda Obra Maestra Tiene Una Copia Barata, pulling over 20,000 reactions and 6,100 shares over the following years1. Later that same month, on April 27th, the page Me Estas Retando? reposted a version that paired SpongeBob SquarePants against Frozen, kicking off a chain of viral reshares across Spanish Facebook8.

How It Spread

English-speaking audiences picked up the format in late 2018. On November 22nd, 2018, the Facebook page The Memegraph posted an English translation that pushed the layout into Anglophone meme circles2. Three days later, on November 25th, iFunny user highqualitymemes123 reposted that translation, with the app featuring the picture and racking up more than 73,300 smiles over the following years3. The template then sat at a slow burn through 2019 and 2020, with notable one-offs including a November 23rd, 2018 Star Wars edit from the page The Star Wars Hub9 and a January 14th, 2020 /r/BikiniBottomTwitter post by Redditor My_Memes_Will_Cure_U that pulled over 56,000 upvotes in six months10.

The real viral spike hit in June 2021. A June 10th post by the Facebook page Hey It's me, Goku launched a wave of Dragon Ball themed versions4, and a June 15th Instagram repost from the goku4life12 account racked up over 17,300 likes in two weeks11. The format then jumped platforms on June 21st, 2021, when the Twitter gimmick account @ManMilk2 (Images That Make Your You Feel Pain) posted an ironic version pitting Fortnite against The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, collecting about 3,900 retweets and 74,900 likes in three days12.

After that June 2021 run, the template settled into the general meme toolkit, still pulled out whenever a fandom wants to dunk on a competing franchise. Older Russian examples are archived on image boards like Joyreactor, which hosted a dedicated 2015 roundup of the Неповторимый оригинал edits13.

Timeline

2020-01-14

Redditor My_Memes_Will_Cure_U posts a version to /r/BikiniBottomTwitter that pulls over 56,000 upvotes.

How to Use This Meme

To build one, stack two images vertically: label the top panel 'masterpiece' (or 'original/obra maestra/неповторимый оригинал') and the bottom panel 'cheap copy' (or 'copia barata/жалкая пародия'). The common convention is to pick two things with an obvious family resemblance, same genre, same silhouette, same release era, then either defend the one you actually love or troll by naming the clearly better work as the 'cheap copy.'