# I Can Count to Potato "I Can Count to Potato" began as a line of dialogue from the 2005 Johnny Knoxville comedy The Ringer, where a character faking an intellectual disability rehearsed the phrase in a mirror. Image boards picked it up by November 2008 as both a comeback for comments deemed dumb and a caption paired with photos of people with Down syndrome, and by December 2011 a Scumbag Steve derivative drew over 8,500 upvotes on r/AdviceAnimals alongside pointed criticism from r/ShitRedditSays. ## Origin The catchphrase comes from The Ringer, a 2005 comedy in which Johnny Knoxville plays Steve Barker, a con man pretending to have an intellectual disability so his cousin can fix the Special Olympics. Around the 1:14 mark of a widely shared clip, Barker rehearses "I can count to potato" at his bathroom mirror while trying out facial expressions[1]. A black t-shirt bearing the line went up on CafePress on January 10th, 2006, roughly a month after the film's December release[4]. The earliest known image macro use came from the celebrity gossip blog ROFL Razzi, which captioned a photo of reality TV figure Heidi Montag with the phrase on November 8th, 2008[8]. Within months, posters began attaching the line to photos of children with Down syndrome, moving the joke away from its movie reference and toward a mockery format. - **Platform:** The Ringer (film) / ROFL Razzi (image macro spread) - **Creator:** Unknown - **Date:** 2005 ## Overview A typical "I Can Count to Potato" post attaches the catchphrase, or variants like "U are so potato," to a candid photograph of a smiling child or adult, often set against the color wheel used for Advice Dog style macros[3]. The joke reads intellectual disability off the subject's appearance, which is why r/ShitRedditSays and other critics flagged the format as ableist[5]. Writeups cite the catchphrase as a textbook case of ableism, a term for discrimination against disabled people[6]. Variations deliver the gag with different punchlines. On 4chan boards, posters insert a "potato" image into "count to 100" threads to break the chain[7]. Image macros also substitute nonsense words like "firetruck" for "potato" to make a counting joke land on an absurd target. The target of the mockery is sometimes the pictured subject, sometimes a user whose comment the poster wants to call stupid[4]. ## How to Use Common convention places the catchphrase as bottom text on an image macro of a person who looks happy or oddly posed, usually with Impact font over the Advice Dog color wheel[3]. On forums and 4chan, a user often replies to a comment they consider unintelligent with just the words "I can count to potato," or breaks a "count to 100" thread with a potato image at a round number[7]. Variants like "U are so potato" or "Only counts to firetruck" keep the structure of the gag while swapping the final noun. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is I Can Count to Potato? It is a catchphrase and image macro template used to call someone unintelligent, usually by pairing the words with a photograph of a person who appears to have an intellectual disability[4]. Critics have called the format ableist[5]. ### Where did I Can Count to Potato come from? The line comes from the 2005 Johnny Knoxville comedy The Ringer, where Knoxville's character rehearses "I can count to potato" in a mirror while pretending to have an intellectual disability[1]. ### What does I Can Count to Potato mean? The phrase mocks a target as stupid by swapping a number for the word "potato," implying the speaker cannot count correctly. Commentators describe its use as a case of ableism, a form of discrimination against disabled people[6]. ### How do you use I Can Count to Potato? Posters typically put the catchphrase on an image macro of a smiling child or adult, often over the Advice Dog color wheel[3], or reply with the phrase to a comment they consider dumb on forums like 4chan or Reddit[7]. ### Is I Can Count to Potato still popular? Documented activity peaked around the December 2011 Scumbag Steve derivative on r/AdviceAnimals and the simultaneous r/ShitRedditSays criticism[5]. The format has declined since, with later writeups treating it as an older image board joke. ## References 1. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UB2tzkh2gfU]() 2. [https://thechive.com/2009/02/24/this-is-not-funny/]() 3. [https://funnyjunk.com/funny_pictures/51037/I+can+count+to+potato/]() 4. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/i-can-count-to-potato]() 5. [https://www.reddit.com/r/ShitRedditSays/comments/nj7pn/on_a_picture_of_a_kid_with_downs_syndrome_i_can/]() 6. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ableism]() 7. [http://chanarchive.org/4chan/sp/7627/count-to-99]() 8. [http://celebs.icanhascheezburger.com/2008/11/08/celebrity-pictures-heidi-montag-potato/]() 9. [https://www.reddit.com/r/AdviceAnimals/comments/nitbh/im_going_to_hell_for_this/c39hm4r]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/i-can-count-to-potato Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library