Hiding From a Serial Killer — Four-panel comic of a masked serial killer finding a hiding victim, standing confused, speaking a blank speech bubble, then being

Hiding From a Serial Killer

2016image macroclassic

Published October 15, 2026

Hiding From a Serial Killer is an image macro series built around a mock dialogue in which someone being hunted by a killer blurts out the next line of a pop lyric and gives away their hiding spot. Twitter user @tylercoleray kicked off the joke in December 2016 with a 'Rain Drop Drop Top' punchline, and by March 2017 Instagram and Reddit were filling the template with Trivago gags, Linux jokes and Smash Mouth lyrics.

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Overview

Posts in the Hiding From a Serial Killer series pair a photo of someone hiding, usually a man in his underwear peeking out from behind a closet door, with a mock exchange in which the killer calls out a setup line the hider finishes reflexively2. The humor turns on the specific pop reference the hider blurts: a widely shared 2017 edit answered 'Hotel?' with 'Trivago'4, and a 9gag entry pictured a woman in a library singing along to Smash Mouth's 'All Star' when prompted with 'Somebody once told me...'7.

Fans quickly reskinned the template for subculture jokes while keeping the reflex-reveal beat. A /r/linuxmemes edit swapped the hider for a GNU/Linux user who corrects the killer's distro name5, and later rewrites moved into Star Wars prequel and Xenoblade fandoms using a four-panel comic drawing by Filipino artist Nazzquipit6. A 2019 Twitter revival dropped the reaction photo altogether and recast the killer as an armed robber, keeping only the dialogue structure1.

Origin & Background

Platform
Twitter (origin) / Instagram, Reddit (viral spread)
Creator
@tylercoleray
Date
2016

@tylercoleray posted the original tweet on December 14, 2016, writing a short back-and-forth in which the narrator, hiding from a serial killer, accidentally raps the Migos and Travis Scott hook 'Rain Drop Drop Top' when the killer tries to lure them out2. The tweet picked up more than 2,600 likes and 1,500 retweets within three months3.

Nine days later, on December 23, 2016, Instagram account thefunnyintrovery paired @tylercoleray's dialogue with a stock photo of a man in boxers crouched behind a closet door, locking in the visual template that later edits reused3. The combined image macro collected over 18,800 likes within three months, per Know Your Meme's tally3.

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How It Spread

The joke went template on March 12, 2017, when Redditor Berwve posted 'Hiding from serial killer memes on the rise!' to /r/MemeEconomy with the Trivago riff attached4. The same day, Redditor unixstickers uploaded a Linux-themed version to /r/linuxmemes5, and 9gag's Instagram feed pushed a library-set edit using 'All Star' lyrics that collected more than 415,000 likes in 48 hours7.

On December 27, 2017, Nazzquipit redrew the gag as a four-panel Facebook comic that reached more than 16,000 reactions and 8,600 shares over the next two years6. In the following weeks, fans rewrote the speech bubbles for their own corners of Reddit, including a January 4, 2018 /r/Xenoblade_Chronicles post by LuxDivina8 and a June 2018 /r/PrequelMemes clone-wars edit by Glassbil123.

In August 2019 the joke returned on Twitter with the killer replaced by an armed robber. @real_jaeflex opened the run on August 26 with a tweet that reached over 8,000 retweets and 20,000 likes9, and Daily Dot wrote up the trend days later, pointing to follow-ups from @MCMVIII, @amaditalks and @bkerogers1.

Timeline

2016-12-14

@tylercoleray posts the original mock dialogue ending in 'Rain Drop Drop Top' on Twitter.

2016-12-23

Instagram account thefunnyintrovery pairs the dialogue with the closet-door hiding photo, creating the image macro template.

2017-03-12

The 'Trivago' edit lands on /r/MemeEconomy and a Linux variant runs on /r/linuxmemes the same day; 9gag's 'All Star' library edit also goes up on Instagram.

2017-12-27

Filipino artist Nazzquipit redraws the joke as a four-panel comic on Facebook that fans begin reskinning for other fandoms.

2018-01-04

/r/Xenoblade_Chronicles user LuxDivina posts a Nazzquipit edit, one of the first fandom rewrites to catch on.

2019-08-26

@real_jaeflex restarts the joke on Twitter with an 'armed robber' version, dropping the reaction photo and keeping only the dialogue.

2019-08

Daily Dot covers the armed robber round and highlights spin-offs from @MCMVIII, @amaditalks and @bkerogers.

Frequently Asked Questions