Kanye West Holding Notepad

2022Exploitable image macro / sign-holding formatsemi-active

Also known as: Kanye Notepad · Kanye Legal Pad · Ye Notepad

Kanye West Holding Notepad is a 2022 exploitable image macro featuring rapper Kanye West with a yellow legal pad, repurposed as a sign-holding meme template where users edit the notepad's message.

Kanye West Holding Notepad is an exploitable image macro based on a photo of rapper Kanye West holding up a yellow legal pad with the handwritten message "my account is not hacked 2 13 22." Posted to Instagram on February 13, 2022, during a chaotic posting spree about his divorce from Kim Kardashian and her relationship with Pete Davidson, the image was quickly deleted but not before the internet turned it into a sign-holding meme template where users edited the notepad to say anything they wanted1.

kanye west memesexploitable templateship hop memessign memes

Overview

The meme uses a photograph of Kanye West holding up a yellow legal pad toward the camera. In the original image, the notepad reads "my account is not hacked" with the date "2 13 22" scrawled underneath3. West posted two versions of the photo: one showing his face and another where he's wearing a mask with his arm raised in the air3. The format works as a classic sign-holding exploitable where creators erase the original text and replace it with jokes, drawings, or absurd messages, making it look like Kanye himself wrote them1.

In early February 2022, Kanye West broke his usual social media silence with a rapid-fire series of Instagram posts. The posts targeted Pete Davidson, who was dating West's ex-wife Kim Kardashian, and included photoshopped images and emotional messages about his ongoing divorce1. The sheer volume and intensity of the posts led some fans to wonder if West's account had been compromised2.

On February 13, 2022, West addressed the hacking concerns directly by posting two photos of himself holding a yellow legal pad with "my account is not hacked 2 13 22" written on it3. The caption, written in all caps, read: "My account is not hacked I will be at Sunday Service at noon and will me taking North and Saint to the Super Bowl shortly after"1. The post also called out SNL cast member Michael Che, who fired back on Instagram with his own series of notepad-written responses, picking up over 291,000 likes in a single day3. West deleted the original post shortly after publishing it, but screenshots had already spread1.

Origin & Background

Platform
Instagram (original post), Twitter (viral spread)
Key People
Kanye West, @SeriousUnci
Date
2022

In early February 2022, Kanye West broke his usual social media silence with a rapid-fire series of Instagram posts. The posts targeted Pete Davidson, who was dating West's ex-wife Kim Kardashian, and included photoshopped images and emotional messages about his ongoing divorce. The sheer volume and intensity of the posts led some fans to wonder if West's account had been compromised.

On February 13, 2022, West addressed the hacking concerns directly by posting two photos of himself holding a yellow legal pad with "my account is not hacked 2 13 22" written on it. The caption, written in all caps, read: "My account is not hacked I will be at Sunday Service at noon and will me taking North and Saint to the Super Bowl shortly after". The post also called out SNL cast member Michael Che, who fired back on Instagram with his own series of notepad-written responses, picking up over 291,000 likes in a single day. West deleted the original post shortly after publishing it, but screenshots had already spread.

How It Spread

The meme moved fast. On the same day, February 13, Twitter user @PopBase reposted the images, collecting over 3,200 likes within 24 hours. Also that day, @SeriousUnci posted a photoshopped edit with the text removed from the notepad, creating a blank template and tweeting "New Meme Format dropped #KanyeWest #Kanye," which picked up over 400 likes.

Edits started flooding in immediately. Twitter user @jr_itm posted a version with SpongeBob character Doodlebob drawn on the notepad, earning over 7,400 retweets and 52,000 likes in a day. @KelseyKreppel posted a variation referencing the classic Kanye Interrupts meme ("Imma let you finish"), pulling in 26,600 likes and 2,700 retweets.

By February 14, the meme had grown enough for people to use it as a "ratio" tool on Twitter. User @KanyePodcast shared a screenshot of someone successfully ratioing a post using a Kanye notepad image with "ratio" written on it. The same day, Distractify and HITC both published articles covering the trend. USA Today's For The Win section ran a roundup of the best variations a few days later, calling it "Twitter's new favorite meme".

The format drew comparisons to other sign-holding and whiteboard exploitables. As Distractify noted, "fans love a chance to insert a new image on a whiteboard or sheet of paper that's near a celebrity". The meme's appeal was straightforward: it let people put words in the mouth of one of the most unpredictable celebrities on the internet, right in the middle of a very public meltdown.

How to Use This Meme

The Kanye West Holding Notepad format typically follows these steps:

1

Start with the image of Kanye holding the yellow legal pad (the unmasked version is more commonly used).

2

Erase or cover the original "my account is not hacked" text.

3

Write or draw something new on the notepad. Common approaches include jokes, meme references, simple drawings, single absurd words like "Dinosaur," or timely commentary.

4

Post it as if Kanye himself scrawled the message.

Cultural Impact

The meme landed during a period of intense public scrutiny of Kanye West's online behavior. His February 2022 Instagram spree included calling out Billie Eilish (claiming she had dissed Travis Scott), announcing that Kid Cudi would be removed from his album because of Cudi's friendship with Pete Davidson, and sharing a photoshopped Captain America: Civil War poster with his and Davidson's faces. Multiple outlets covered both the posts and the resulting memes, with writers noting the tension between finding humor in the situation and acknowledging West's documented mental health struggles.

Michael Che's same-day notepad response on Instagram, which earned nearly 300,000 likes, showed how the format could be used for direct celebrity-to-celebrity communication. The meme also briefly became a functional Twitter tool, with users deploying Kanye notepad images as ratio weapons.

Fun Facts

West deleted the original Instagram post within hours, but the internet had already screenshotted both versions and started editing them.

The notepad meme dropped on February 13, just one day before Valentine's Day, giving creators extra material to work with given the divorce context.

The meme format was so intuitive that @SeriousUnci's blank template appeared within hours of the original post, showing how quickly internet users can identify exploitable content.

USA Today ran a full roundup of the best edits, treating the meme like a sporting event highlight reel.

Derivatives & Variations

Doodlebob Notepad

— @jr_itm's edit featuring SpongeBob's Doodlebob drawn on the pad, one of the earliest and most popular variations at 52,000 likes[3].

Kanye Interrupts Notepad

— @KelseyKreppel's self-referential version calling back to the 2009 "Imma let you finish" moment, getting 26,600 likes[3].

Ratio Notepad

— Users writing "ratio" on the notepad and deploying it in Twitter reply threads to ratio other posts[3].

Michael Che Notepad Response

— Che's multi-page Instagram reply written on his own notepad pages, a direct riff on the original format[3].

Frequently Asked Questions

Kanye West Holding Notepad

2022Exploitable image macro / sign-holding formatsemi-active

Also known as: Kanye Notepad · Kanye Legal Pad · Ye Notepad

Kanye West Holding Notepad is a 2022 exploitable image macro featuring rapper Kanye West with a yellow legal pad, repurposed as a sign-holding meme template where users edit the notepad's message.

Kanye West Holding Notepad is an exploitable image macro based on a photo of rapper Kanye West holding up a yellow legal pad with the handwritten message "my account is not hacked 2 13 22." Posted to Instagram on February 13, 2022, during a chaotic posting spree about his divorce from Kim Kardashian and her relationship with Pete Davidson, the image was quickly deleted but not before the internet turned it into a sign-holding meme template where users edited the notepad to say anything they wanted.

kanye west memes exploitable templates hip hop memes sign memes

Overview

The meme uses a photograph of Kanye West holding up a yellow legal pad toward the camera. In the original image, the notepad reads "my account is not hacked" with the date "2 13 22" scrawled underneath. West posted two versions of the photo: one showing his face and another where he's wearing a mask with his arm raised in the air. The format works as a classic sign-holding exploitable where creators erase the original text and replace it with jokes, drawings, or absurd messages, making it look like Kanye himself wrote them.

In early February 2022, Kanye West broke his usual social media silence with a rapid-fire series of Instagram posts. The posts targeted Pete Davidson, who was dating West's ex-wife Kim Kardashian, and included photoshopped images and emotional messages about his ongoing divorce. The sheer volume and intensity of the posts led some fans to wonder if West's account had been compromised.

On February 13, 2022, West addressed the hacking concerns directly by posting two photos of himself holding a yellow legal pad with "my account is not hacked 2 13 22" written on it. The caption, written in all caps, read: "My account is not hacked I will be at Sunday Service at noon and will me taking North and Saint to the Super Bowl shortly after". The post also called out SNL cast member Michael Che, who fired back on Instagram with his own series of notepad-written responses, picking up over 291,000 likes in a single day. West deleted the original post shortly after publishing it, but screenshots had already spread.

Origin & Background

Platform
Instagram (original post), Twitter (viral spread)
Key People
Kanye West, @SeriousUnci
Date
2022

In early February 2022, Kanye West broke his usual social media silence with a rapid-fire series of Instagram posts. The posts targeted Pete Davidson, who was dating West's ex-wife Kim Kardashian, and included photoshopped images and emotional messages about his ongoing divorce. The sheer volume and intensity of the posts led some fans to wonder if West's account had been compromised.

On February 13, 2022, West addressed the hacking concerns directly by posting two photos of himself holding a yellow legal pad with "my account is not hacked 2 13 22" written on it. The caption, written in all caps, read: "My account is not hacked I will be at Sunday Service at noon and will me taking North and Saint to the Super Bowl shortly after". The post also called out SNL cast member Michael Che, who fired back on Instagram with his own series of notepad-written responses, picking up over 291,000 likes in a single day. West deleted the original post shortly after publishing it, but screenshots had already spread.

How It Spread

The meme moved fast. On the same day, February 13, Twitter user @PopBase reposted the images, collecting over 3,200 likes within 24 hours. Also that day, @SeriousUnci posted a photoshopped edit with the text removed from the notepad, creating a blank template and tweeting "New Meme Format dropped #KanyeWest #Kanye," which picked up over 400 likes.

Edits started flooding in immediately. Twitter user @jr_itm posted a version with SpongeBob character Doodlebob drawn on the notepad, earning over 7,400 retweets and 52,000 likes in a day. @KelseyKreppel posted a variation referencing the classic Kanye Interrupts meme ("Imma let you finish"), pulling in 26,600 likes and 2,700 retweets.

By February 14, the meme had grown enough for people to use it as a "ratio" tool on Twitter. User @KanyePodcast shared a screenshot of someone successfully ratioing a post using a Kanye notepad image with "ratio" written on it. The same day, Distractify and HITC both published articles covering the trend. USA Today's For The Win section ran a roundup of the best variations a few days later, calling it "Twitter's new favorite meme".

The format drew comparisons to other sign-holding and whiteboard exploitables. As Distractify noted, "fans love a chance to insert a new image on a whiteboard or sheet of paper that's near a celebrity". The meme's appeal was straightforward: it let people put words in the mouth of one of the most unpredictable celebrities on the internet, right in the middle of a very public meltdown.

How to Use This Meme

The Kanye West Holding Notepad format typically follows these steps:

1

Start with the image of Kanye holding the yellow legal pad (the unmasked version is more commonly used).

2

Erase or cover the original "my account is not hacked" text.

3

Write or draw something new on the notepad. Common approaches include jokes, meme references, simple drawings, single absurd words like "Dinosaur," or timely commentary.

4

Post it as if Kanye himself scrawled the message.

Cultural Impact

The meme landed during a period of intense public scrutiny of Kanye West's online behavior. His February 2022 Instagram spree included calling out Billie Eilish (claiming she had dissed Travis Scott), announcing that Kid Cudi would be removed from his album because of Cudi's friendship with Pete Davidson, and sharing a photoshopped Captain America: Civil War poster with his and Davidson's faces. Multiple outlets covered both the posts and the resulting memes, with writers noting the tension between finding humor in the situation and acknowledging West's documented mental health struggles.

Michael Che's same-day notepad response on Instagram, which earned nearly 300,000 likes, showed how the format could be used for direct celebrity-to-celebrity communication. The meme also briefly became a functional Twitter tool, with users deploying Kanye notepad images as ratio weapons.

Fun Facts

West deleted the original Instagram post within hours, but the internet had already screenshotted both versions and started editing them.

The notepad meme dropped on February 13, just one day before Valentine's Day, giving creators extra material to work with given the divorce context.

The meme format was so intuitive that @SeriousUnci's blank template appeared within hours of the original post, showing how quickly internet users can identify exploitable content.

USA Today ran a full roundup of the best edits, treating the meme like a sporting event highlight reel.

Derivatives & Variations

Doodlebob Notepad

— @jr_itm's edit featuring SpongeBob's Doodlebob drawn on the pad, one of the earliest and most popular variations at 52,000 likes[3].

Kanye Interrupts Notepad

— @KelseyKreppel's self-referential version calling back to the 2009 "Imma let you finish" moment, getting 26,600 likes[3].

Ratio Notepad

— Users writing "ratio" on the notepad and deploying it in Twitter reply threads to ratio other posts[3].

Michael Che Notepad Response

— Che's multi-page Instagram reply written on his own notepad pages, a direct riff on the original format[3].

Frequently Asked Questions