I Lied

2011reaction imageclassic

Published August 30, 2026

I Lied is a nefarious blue-and-black rage face that Redditor Coveiro introduced on r/f7u12 in May 2011 as the reveal panel for rage comics about petty lies. Within months the face was pulling front-page traffic on Reddit, spawning fruit-themed spinoffs, and getting its own single-topic Tumblr.

rage comicsbait and switch memesfacial expression memessubreddit origin memesearly 2010s memes

Overview

The drawing shows a wide, sinister grin under heavy blue eyebrows, built to sit in the final panel of a rage comic when the narrator admits the whole setup was a bait-and-switch1. Most gags run on throwaway white lies, like promising to share food and then eating it all, or claiming to hold a door before letting it slam shut1. The joke works the same way as the slang "sike" or "psych", which flips the last thing a speaker said into an admitted lie2.

Artists riffed on the face's rounded silhouette almost immediately. A blueberry-shaped variant led to Strawberry Guy, and later derivatives such as "No Homo", "Watermelon Man" and "Bad Apple" filled out a whole "Fruit Men" category inside Cheezburger's Rage Builder3.

Origin & Background

Platform
Reddit (r/f7u12)
Creator
Coveiro
Date
2011

The face first appeared in a Reddit comic titled "I was way evil back then", which user Coveiro posted to r/f7u12 on May 10, 2011. The thread reached the subreddit's front page and pulled in 8,753 upvotes before being archived. Four days later, on May 14, Coveiro posted a follow-up with a cleaner redraw of the face, and that second version was the template other rage comic makers copied going forward3.

How It Spread

Humor blog Pleated Jeans published an 18-comic roundup titled "Best of the I Lied Meme" on June 30, 2011, which pushed the face well outside of Reddit1. Cheezburger's Memebase started remixing it on June 22 with a comic pointing out that the face looked like a blueberry, kicking off the Strawberry Guy spinoff3. Artist Sam Spartt uploaded a polished illustration to Flickr on July 31, and a YouTube slideshow compilation of user submissions followed on August 23.

Fans launched a single-topic Tumblr for the meme on October 3, 2011, and by December 7 the Facebook fan page had 4,272 likes, with Meme Generator hosting 152 user versions and Quickmeme carrying 211. TV Tropes lists "I Lied" as a stock phrase associated with cartoon villains, which likely helped the rage face stick as shorthand for petty betrayal even after the wider rage comic style faded4.

How to Use This Meme

Drop the face into the last panel of a rage comic where the storyteller reveals they were lying the whole time. Common setups include broken promises, food-sharing tricks, or admitting the story so far was fabricated for the punchline1.

Frequently Asked Questions

I Lied

2011reaction imageclassic

Published August 30, 2026

I Lied is a nefarious blue-and-black rage face that Redditor Coveiro introduced on r/f7u12 in May 2011 as the reveal panel for rage comics about petty lies. Within months the face was pulling front-page traffic on Reddit, spawning fruit-themed spinoffs, and getting its own single-topic Tumblr.

rage comics bait and switch memes facial expression memes subreddit origin memes early 2010s memes

Overview

The drawing shows a wide, sinister grin under heavy blue eyebrows, built to sit in the final panel of a rage comic when the narrator admits the whole setup was a bait-and-switch1. Most gags run on throwaway white lies, like promising to share food and then eating it all, or claiming to hold a door before letting it slam shut1. The joke works the same way as the slang "sike" or "psych", which flips the last thing a speaker said into an admitted lie2.

Artists riffed on the face's rounded silhouette almost immediately. A blueberry-shaped variant led to Strawberry Guy, and later derivatives such as "No Homo", "Watermelon Man" and "Bad Apple" filled out a whole "Fruit Men" category inside Cheezburger's Rage Builder3.

Origin & Background

Platform
Reddit (r/f7u12)
Creator
Coveiro
Date
2011

The face first appeared in a Reddit comic titled "I was way evil back then", which user Coveiro posted to r/f7u12 on May 10, 2011. The thread reached the subreddit's front page and pulled in 8,753 upvotes before being archived. Four days later, on May 14, Coveiro posted a follow-up with a cleaner redraw of the face, and that second version was the template other rage comic makers copied going forward3.

How It Spread

Humor blog Pleated Jeans published an 18-comic roundup titled "Best of the I Lied Meme" on June 30, 2011, which pushed the face well outside of Reddit1. Cheezburger's Memebase started remixing it on June 22 with a comic pointing out that the face looked like a blueberry, kicking off the Strawberry Guy spinoff3. Artist Sam Spartt uploaded a polished illustration to Flickr on July 31, and a YouTube slideshow compilation of user submissions followed on August 23.

Fans launched a single-topic Tumblr for the meme on October 3, 2011, and by December 7 the Facebook fan page had 4,272 likes, with Meme Generator hosting 152 user versions and Quickmeme carrying 211. TV Tropes lists "I Lied" as a stock phrase associated with cartoon villains, which likely helped the rage face stick as shorthand for petty betrayal even after the wider rage comic style faded4.

How to Use This Meme

Drop the face into the last panel of a rage comic where the storyteller reveals they were lying the whole time. Common setups include broken promises, food-sharing tricks, or admitting the story so far was fabricated for the punchline1.

Frequently Asked Questions