Increasingly Verbose

2016Image macro / multi-panel formatsemi-active

Also known as: Progressively Verbose · Verbose Memes · Meme Corruption · Deconstruction Comics · Meme Decay

Increasingly Verbose memes are multi-panel images where a meme is redrawn with progressively worse art quality while its caption is rewritten in increasingly wordy, overwrought language with each frame1. Originating on Imgur in May 2016, the format exploded on Reddit by December of that year, turning simple catchphrases into absurd pseudo-academic paragraphs paired with crude MS Paint illustrations2. The humor comes from the inverse relationship between visual quality and textual complexity.

progression memesmeta internet memesinternet meta memesms paint memesmulti panel memes

Overview

An Increasingly Verbose meme starts with a recognizable meme image and its standard caption in the first panel. Each subsequent panel redraws the image with less effort or more JPEG compression, while the caption balloons into an elaborate, pseudo-intellectual restatement of the original phrase3. A two-word caption like "boi" might end up as a full paragraph about the philosophical implications of addressing a young male, all next to what looks like a stick figure drawn with a trackpad.

The format's appeal is the deliberate mismatch: the text gets fancier and more precise while the art gets uglier and less coherent1. It's a visual joke about overcomplication, turning the simplest internet humor into something that reads like a bad dissertation abstract.

On May 8, 2016, Imgur user AFuckingWhiteMale posted a gallery applying the format to the "Breath In, Boi" meme3. The gallery showed several redrawn versions of the original image, each paired with an increasingly wordy version of "breath in / boi." This is the earliest documented example of the structured multi-panel format.

The style had roots in two older meme traditions. The subreddit r/coaxedintoasnafu had long featured poorly redrawn meme characters with reworded catchphrases3. Verbose Memes, a separate image macro series, took internet references and rewrote them in unnecessarily lengthy language3. Increasingly Verbose combined both ideas into a single escalating format. Some users also trace the concept back to Archaic Rap, which rewrote modern lyrics in old-fashioned English3.

The format went by several names early on: "meme corruption," "deconstructed memes," "verbose memes," and "meme decay"3. In November 2016, YouTuber The Kase Reibe called it a "progressively verbose" meme in a video, and by December 2016 the name "increasingly verbose" stuck as it gained traction on r/coaxedintoasnafu3.

Origin & Background

Platform
Imgur (first examples), Reddit (viral spread)
Key People
AFuckingWhiteMale, The Kase Reibe
Date
2016

On May 8, 2016, Imgur user AFuckingWhiteMale posted a gallery applying the format to the "Breath In, Boi" meme3. The gallery showed several redrawn versions of the original image, each paired with an increasingly wordy version of "breath in / boi." This is the earliest documented example of the structured multi-panel format.

The style had roots in two older meme traditions. The subreddit r/coaxedintoasnafu had long featured poorly redrawn meme characters with reworded catchphrases3. Verbose Memes, a separate image macro series, took internet references and rewrote them in unnecessarily lengthy language3. Increasingly Verbose combined both ideas into a single escalating format. Some users also trace the concept back to Archaic Rap, which rewrote modern lyrics in old-fashioned English3.

The format went by several names early on: "meme corruption," "deconstructed memes," "verbose memes," and "meme decay"3. In November 2016, YouTuber The Kase Reibe called it a "progressively verbose" meme in a video, and by December 2016 the name "increasingly verbose" stuck as it gained traction on r/coaxedintoasnafu3.

How It Spread

The Kase Reibe's October 2016 video spinoff used the "Press X to Doubt" meme from L.A. Noire, narrating the increasingly verbose text with degrading audio quality to match the degrading video resolution3. This added a multimedia dimension to what had been a static image format.

Reddit drove the format's breakout in December 2016. On December 11, user Stop_Drop_And_Roll posted a verbose version of the Team Fortress 2 Heavy saying "put a dispenser here" to r/tf2, pulling in over 3,700 upvotes3. By December 20, the format was popular enough that a user posted to r/OutOfTheLoop asking what these memes were, using a verbose take on Big Smoke's Order from GTA: San Andreas as an example3.

Christmas week 2016 was the peak. On December 25, user Thomasvdw14 posted a Bee Movie-themed version to r/dankmemes that hit 1,200 upvotes3. Two days later, on December 27, a post on r/MemeEconomy reached the Reddit front page with over 17,000 upvotes in 24 hours3.

Urban Dictionary entries define the format as "a type of multi-frame image in which a lackluster or overused meme is replicated with poorer graphical fidelity but increased verbosity" to the point where the original context is needed to understand the final panel1.

Platforms

RedditTwitterTikTokDiscordInstagram

Timeline

2016-06

Meme format emerges

2017-01

Gains traction in internet circles

2018-01

Reaches peak popularity

2019-01-01

Brands and companies started using Increasingly Verbose in marketing

2021-01-01

Increasingly Verbose entered the broader pop culture conversation

2024-01

Current status in meme culture

View on Google Trends

How to Use This Meme

The typical approach follows a few loose conventions:

1

Pick a well-known meme with a short, iconic caption. The more recognizable the source, the better the joke lands.

2

Create 3-6 panels, starting with the original image and caption.

3

Redraw each panel with progressively less skill or apply increasing JPEG compression. MS Paint is the traditional tool. By the final panel, the image should be barely recognizable.

4

Rewrite the caption for each panel using more elaborate vocabulary. A word like "no" might become "I must respectfully decline your proposition" and eventually a paragraph-long philosophical treatise.

5

The humor works best when the final caption is technically accurate but absurdly overwritten, and the final image is a shapeless blob that only makes sense if you saw panel one.

Create Your Own

Cultural Impact

The format tapped into the mid-2010s internet love of ironic, self-aware humor about memes themselves. By taking familiar formats and running them through an absurdity engine, Increasingly Verbose became a meta-commentary on how memes work. The r/MemeEconomy front page hit in December 2016 marked one of the subreddit's early viral moments, at a time when treating memes as commodities was itself a rising joke3.

The format also popularized the idea of "meme decay" as a visual concept. While r/coaxedintoasnafu had been doing crude redraws for years, Increasingly Verbose gave the approach a structured, repeatable template that anyone could apply to any meme3.

Fun Facts

The format's earliest known name was "meme corruption," which some users preferred because it described the visual degradation rather than the text inflation3.

The r/OutOfTheLoop post asking about the format on December 20, 2016 helped spread it to audiences who didn't follow meme subreddits3.

Urban Dictionary's definition itself reads like a mild example of the format, using phrases like "poorer graphical fidelity" instead of just saying "worse drawings"1.

The Bee Movie version that went viral on Christmas Day 2016 hit a 96% upvote ratio, unusually high for r/dankmemes3.

Derivatives & Variations

Community variations and adaptations

A variation of Increasingly Verbose

(2016)

Platform-specific versions

A variation of Increasingly Verbose

(2016)

Subculture-specific remixes

A variation of Increasingly Verbose

(2016)

Frequently Asked Questions

Increasingly Verbose

2016Image macro / multi-panel formatsemi-active

Also known as: Progressively Verbose · Verbose Memes · Meme Corruption · Deconstruction Comics · Meme Decay

Increasingly Verbose memes are multi-panel images where a meme is redrawn with progressively worse art quality while its caption is rewritten in increasingly wordy, overwrought language with each frame1. Originating on Imgur in May 2016, the format exploded on Reddit by December of that year, turning simple catchphrases into absurd pseudo-academic paragraphs paired with crude MS Paint illustrations2. The humor comes from the inverse relationship between visual quality and textual complexity.

progression memes meta internet memes internet meta memes ms paint memes multi panel memes

Overview

An Increasingly Verbose meme starts with a recognizable meme image and its standard caption in the first panel. Each subsequent panel redraws the image with less effort or more JPEG compression, while the caption balloons into an elaborate, pseudo-intellectual restatement of the original phrase3. A two-word caption like "boi" might end up as a full paragraph about the philosophical implications of addressing a young male, all next to what looks like a stick figure drawn with a trackpad.

The format's appeal is the deliberate mismatch: the text gets fancier and more precise while the art gets uglier and less coherent1. It's a visual joke about overcomplication, turning the simplest internet humor into something that reads like a bad dissertation abstract.

On May 8, 2016, Imgur user AFuckingWhiteMale posted a gallery applying the format to the "Breath In, Boi" meme3. The gallery showed several redrawn versions of the original image, each paired with an increasingly wordy version of "breath in / boi." This is the earliest documented example of the structured multi-panel format.

The style had roots in two older meme traditions. The subreddit r/coaxedintoasnafu had long featured poorly redrawn meme characters with reworded catchphrases3. Verbose Memes, a separate image macro series, took internet references and rewrote them in unnecessarily lengthy language3. Increasingly Verbose combined both ideas into a single escalating format. Some users also trace the concept back to Archaic Rap, which rewrote modern lyrics in old-fashioned English3.

The format went by several names early on: "meme corruption," "deconstructed memes," "verbose memes," and "meme decay"3. In November 2016, YouTuber The Kase Reibe called it a "progressively verbose" meme in a video, and by December 2016 the name "increasingly verbose" stuck as it gained traction on r/coaxedintoasnafu3.

Origin & Background

Platform
Imgur (first examples), Reddit (viral spread)
Key People
AFuckingWhiteMale, The Kase Reibe
Date
2016

On May 8, 2016, Imgur user AFuckingWhiteMale posted a gallery applying the format to the "Breath In, Boi" meme3. The gallery showed several redrawn versions of the original image, each paired with an increasingly wordy version of "breath in / boi." This is the earliest documented example of the structured multi-panel format.

The style had roots in two older meme traditions. The subreddit r/coaxedintoasnafu had long featured poorly redrawn meme characters with reworded catchphrases3. Verbose Memes, a separate image macro series, took internet references and rewrote them in unnecessarily lengthy language3. Increasingly Verbose combined both ideas into a single escalating format. Some users also trace the concept back to Archaic Rap, which rewrote modern lyrics in old-fashioned English3.

The format went by several names early on: "meme corruption," "deconstructed memes," "verbose memes," and "meme decay"3. In November 2016, YouTuber The Kase Reibe called it a "progressively verbose" meme in a video, and by December 2016 the name "increasingly verbose" stuck as it gained traction on r/coaxedintoasnafu3.

How It Spread

The Kase Reibe's October 2016 video spinoff used the "Press X to Doubt" meme from L.A. Noire, narrating the increasingly verbose text with degrading audio quality to match the degrading video resolution3. This added a multimedia dimension to what had been a static image format.

Reddit drove the format's breakout in December 2016. On December 11, user Stop_Drop_And_Roll posted a verbose version of the Team Fortress 2 Heavy saying "put a dispenser here" to r/tf2, pulling in over 3,700 upvotes3. By December 20, the format was popular enough that a user posted to r/OutOfTheLoop asking what these memes were, using a verbose take on Big Smoke's Order from GTA: San Andreas as an example3.

Christmas week 2016 was the peak. On December 25, user Thomasvdw14 posted a Bee Movie-themed version to r/dankmemes that hit 1,200 upvotes3. Two days later, on December 27, a post on r/MemeEconomy reached the Reddit front page with over 17,000 upvotes in 24 hours3.

Urban Dictionary entries define the format as "a type of multi-frame image in which a lackluster or overused meme is replicated with poorer graphical fidelity but increased verbosity" to the point where the original context is needed to understand the final panel1.

Platforms

RedditTwitterTikTokDiscordInstagram

Timeline

2016-06

Meme format emerges

2017-01

Gains traction in internet circles

2018-01

Reaches peak popularity

2019-01-01

Brands and companies started using Increasingly Verbose in marketing

2021-01-01

Increasingly Verbose entered the broader pop culture conversation

2024-01

Current status in meme culture

View on Google Trends

How to Use This Meme

The typical approach follows a few loose conventions:

1

Pick a well-known meme with a short, iconic caption. The more recognizable the source, the better the joke lands.

2

Create 3-6 panels, starting with the original image and caption.

3

Redraw each panel with progressively less skill or apply increasing JPEG compression. MS Paint is the traditional tool. By the final panel, the image should be barely recognizable.

4

Rewrite the caption for each panel using more elaborate vocabulary. A word like "no" might become "I must respectfully decline your proposition" and eventually a paragraph-long philosophical treatise.

5

The humor works best when the final caption is technically accurate but absurdly overwritten, and the final image is a shapeless blob that only makes sense if you saw panel one.

Create Your Own

Cultural Impact

The format tapped into the mid-2010s internet love of ironic, self-aware humor about memes themselves. By taking familiar formats and running them through an absurdity engine, Increasingly Verbose became a meta-commentary on how memes work. The r/MemeEconomy front page hit in December 2016 marked one of the subreddit's early viral moments, at a time when treating memes as commodities was itself a rising joke3.

The format also popularized the idea of "meme decay" as a visual concept. While r/coaxedintoasnafu had been doing crude redraws for years, Increasingly Verbose gave the approach a structured, repeatable template that anyone could apply to any meme3.

Fun Facts

The format's earliest known name was "meme corruption," which some users preferred because it described the visual degradation rather than the text inflation3.

The r/OutOfTheLoop post asking about the format on December 20, 2016 helped spread it to audiences who didn't follow meme subreddits3.

Urban Dictionary's definition itself reads like a mild example of the format, using phrases like "poorer graphical fidelity" instead of just saying "worse drawings"1.

The Bee Movie version that went viral on Christmas Day 2016 hit a 96% upvote ratio, unusually high for r/dankmemes3.

Derivatives & Variations

Community variations and adaptations

A variation of Increasingly Verbose

(2016)

Platform-specific versions

A variation of Increasingly Verbose

(2016)

Subculture-specific remixes

A variation of Increasingly Verbose

(2016)

Frequently Asked Questions