Excuse Me What The Fuck

2016reaction imageclassic

Excuse Me What The Fuck is a reaction image macro built on a distorted Vault Boy from the Fallout video game series, captioned with the phrase to signal shock or disbelief. It first appeared on Instagram in April 2016 and picked up steam on Reddit through 2018, becoming a go-to reaction for absurd or messed-up content.

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Overview

Excuse Me What The Fuck is a reaction image built around a warped, stretched-out picture of Vault Boy, the cartoon mascot of Bethesda's Fallout video game series 1. The distortion pushes his usual thumbs-up pose into an unsettling, wide-eyed grimace, which people pair with the caption "excuse me what the fuck" to react to something absurd, cursed, or hard to believe 3.

The phrase itself predates the image and is a common informal expression of shock or discomfort, sometimes performed with an exaggerated open-palm hand gesture 2. Once the distorted Vault Boy got attached to it, the pairing turned into a portable template for reaction posts across Reddit and image-sharing sites.

How It Spread

About seven weeks later, on February 25th, 2018, an Imgur user re-uploaded the image with the caption "When yo homie tell you its gay even with socks on," pushing it beyond the DDLC audience 6. The Imgur upload drew over 170 views in the seven months that followed 6.

The format then jumped into history-themed meme communities. On July 20th, 2018, Redditor Nuclear_Scientists posted a version to r/HistoryMemes captioned "Germany: We will honour Dutch neutrality / Belgium:" as a WW1 reference, which earned more than 735 points at 100% upvoted in under a month 7. Two weeks later, on August 12th, 2018, Redditor emperor2111 reposted a variation to r/dankmemes with the setup "Population: 'We need more food our people are starving.' / Soviet Union: sends a dog into space / Population:" 8. That version blew up with over 34,000 points at 91% upvoted and 400 comments, taking the meme well outside its original niche 8.

How to Use This Meme

People typically use the image as the punchline panel in a two-part setup, where a normal or expected statement is followed by the distorted Vault Boy reacting for someone else in the scenario 7. Common conventions include historical "and then this happened" jokes, cursed-content reactions, and any post where the appropriate response is stunned disbelief 8. The caption is often written directly on or under the image, though the phrase can also be used on its own in comment replies without the picture 3.

Frequently Asked Questions

Excuse Me What The Fuck

2016reaction imageclassic

Excuse Me What The Fuck is a reaction image macro built on a distorted Vault Boy from the Fallout video game series, captioned with the phrase to signal shock or disbelief. It first appeared on Instagram in April 2016 and picked up steam on Reddit through 2018, becoming a go-to reaction for absurd or messed-up content.

reaction memes image macro memes catchphrase memes gaming photoshop memes

Overview

Excuse Me What The Fuck is a reaction image built around a warped, stretched-out picture of Vault Boy, the cartoon mascot of Bethesda's Fallout video game series 1. The distortion pushes his usual thumbs-up pose into an unsettling, wide-eyed grimace, which people pair with the caption "excuse me what the fuck" to react to something absurd, cursed, or hard to believe 3.

The phrase itself predates the image and is a common informal expression of shock or discomfort, sometimes performed with an exaggerated open-palm hand gesture 2. Once the distorted Vault Boy got attached to it, the pairing turned into a portable template for reaction posts across Reddit and image-sharing sites.

How It Spread

About seven weeks later, on February 25th, 2018, an Imgur user re-uploaded the image with the caption "When yo homie tell you its gay even with socks on," pushing it beyond the DDLC audience 6. The Imgur upload drew over 170 views in the seven months that followed 6.

The format then jumped into history-themed meme communities. On July 20th, 2018, Redditor Nuclear_Scientists posted a version to r/HistoryMemes captioned "Germany: We will honour Dutch neutrality / Belgium:" as a WW1 reference, which earned more than 735 points at 100% upvoted in under a month 7. Two weeks later, on August 12th, 2018, Redditor emperor2111 reposted a variation to r/dankmemes with the setup "Population: 'We need more food our people are starving.' / Soviet Union: sends a dog into space / Population:" 8. That version blew up with over 34,000 points at 91% upvoted and 400 comments, taking the meme well outside its original niche 8.

How to Use This Meme

People typically use the image as the punchline panel in a two-part setup, where a normal or expected statement is followed by the distorted Vault Boy reacting for someone else in the scenario 7. Common conventions include historical "and then this happened" jokes, cursed-content reactions, and any post where the appropriate response is stunned disbelief 8. The caption is often written directly on or under the image, though the phrase can also be used on its own in comment replies without the picture 3.

Frequently Asked Questions