# Live Laugh Love > Live Laugh Love is a 2011 home-decor catchphrase featured on wall decals and throw pillows that became a meme mocking generic inspirational 'basic' culture. "Live Laugh Love" is a motivational catchphrase derived from a 1904 poem that became a fixture of home decor in the late 2000s and early 2010s. The phrase's sheer popularity on wall decals, mugs, and throw pillows turned it into shorthand for "basic" culture, spawning a wave of memes mocking its perceived shallowness. It's one of the internet's favorite punching bags for generic inspirational living. ## Origin The phrase traces back to the 1904 poem "Success" by Bessie Anderson Stanley, a Kansas resident who wrote it for a magazine contest asking "What constitutes success?"[1]. The poem opens with "He has achieved success / who has lived well, / laughed often, and loved much" and won first place[1]. Stanley's words were frequently misattributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson and Robert Louis Stevenson over the following century[1]. A 1990 Dear Abby column further spread the misattributed version, helping cement the phrase in popular consciousness[3]. By the mid-2000s, an abbreviated "Live, Laugh, Love" had been stamped onto mass-market home decor across the United States. Google Trends data shows searches for the phrase peaked between 2009 and 2014[3]. The shift from earnest motto to meme target happened around 2011. On September 6, 2011, Urban Dictionary user McPhd posted a definition calling it "a trite phrase shallow women stencil onto their bedroom walls after seeing a DIY segment on the Rachael Ray Show"[4]. That definition captured the growing backlash and set the tone for how the internet would treat the phrase going forward[2]. - **Platform:** Urban Dictionary (early mockery), Reddit / Imgur (meme spread) - **Creator:** Bessie Anderson Stanley (original 1904 poem), McPhd (Urban Dictionary definition that crystallized the meme's tone) - **Date:** 2011 (as a meme; phrase popularized in merchandise from ~2004) ## Overview "Live Laugh Love" is a three-word alliterative motto that appeared on seemingly every piece of home decor in the late 2000s[3]. Wall decals, coffee mugs, throw pillows, ornaments, bed linen, jewelry, and even coffins carried the phrase[3]. The meme version flips the phrase's earnest intent into mockery, treating it as a symbol of surface-level positivity and what Vice called "speaking-to-the-manager shallowness"[3]. People create memes expressing exhaustion with the phrase, swapping in darker or absurd alternatives, or using reaction images to convey disgust at seeing it in someone's home. ## How It Spread The mockery picked up steam on Reddit and Imgur through the mid-2010s. On March 22, 2016, an anonymous Imgur user posted a Randy Jackson reaction image expressing disdain for the phrase[2]. On January 1, 2017, a Reddit user posted to r/OutOfTheLoop asking why the quote was so widely hated, with top responses pointing to its oversaturation on merchandise and association with generic, uninspired decorating[2]. By June 22, 2017, the phrase had become meme economy material. Redditor AK_2000 posted a Gordon Ramsay meme about "Live Laugh Love" to r/MemeEconomy[2]. The format typically involved a well-known reaction face or character expressing horror, contempt, or exhaustion at encountering the phrase in the wild. The meme's popularity tracked inversely with the decor trend itself. As Vice noted, the sincere merchandise trend had largely passed by 2020, but the memes mocking it kept going strong[3]. The phrase became a reliable shorthand in internet humor for mocking "basic" culture, particularly Gen X home aesthetics[3]. ## How to Use The most common format involves pairing the phrase with a reaction image or a dark/absurd twist: - Take a well-known reaction template (Gordon Ramsay disgusted, someone walking out, a character screaming) and pair it with encountering "Live Laugh Love" decor in someone's home - Replace one or more of the three words with something bleak or unexpected ("Live Laugh Lobotomy," "Lie Cry Die," "Live Laugh Leave") - Post a photo of actual "Live Laugh Love" decor in an incongruous setting, like a dumpster or an abandoned building - Use the phrase ironically as a caption when something is clearly going wrong The humor works because the original phrase is so widely recognized that any subversion of it lands immediately. ## Cultural Impact The phrase's journey from earnest motto to cultural punchline mirrors how the internet processes sincerity. What started as a genuine inspirational message became so overexposed through mass-market retail that it triggered a backlash[2]. The backlash itself became a form of bonding, with mocking "Live Laugh Love" serving as a signal that someone is self-aware about interior decorating trends. In India, the Live Love Laugh Foundation, a mental health organization founded by actress Deepika Padukone, took its name from the phrase in its sincere form[3]. The phrase also appeared in academic discussions about how motivational slogans function as cultural markers across generational lines. The meme helped popularize a broader genre of jokes about "basic" home decor, including similar targets like "Bless This Mess," "But First, Coffee," and farmhouse-style "Gather" signs. ## Fun Facts - Bessie Anderson Stanley's original 1904 poem was an entry in a contest about the definition of success. She won first place[1]. - The poem has been wrongly attributed to both Ralph Waldo Emerson and Robert Louis Stevenson for over a century[1]. - "Live Laugh Love" decor has appeared on coffins, making it possibly the only motivational wall art that follows you to the grave[3]. - The Urban Dictionary definition from 2011 specifically called out the Rachael Ray Show as the pipeline for the trend[4]. - Google Trends data pins peak interest in the phrase to 2009-2014, meaning the decor trend was already fading when the memes really took off[3]. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is Live Laugh Love? "Live Laugh Love" is a motivational catchphrase that became wildly popular on home decor items in the late 2000s and early 2010s[3]. Online, it's used as a meme mocking shallow positivity and "basic" culture[2]. ### Where did Live Laugh Love come from? The phrase is derived from the 1904 poem "Success" by Bessie Anderson Stanley, which begins "He has achieved success / who has lived well, / laughed often, and loved much"[1]. It was popularized in its shortened form through a 1990 Dear Abby column[3]. ### What does Live Laugh Love mean? In its original context, it's a call to live fully, find joy, and love deeply[1]. As a meme, it signals generic, surface-level positivity that people associate with mass-market home decor and uninspired decorating choices[4]. ### How do you use the Live Laugh Love meme? The most common approach is pairing the phrase with a disgusted reaction image, swapping in dark or absurd words, or photographing the decor in ironic settings[2]. The humor comes from subverting the phrase's earnest intent. ### Is Live Laugh Love still popular? The sincere decor trend peaked between 2009 and 2014 according to Google Trends[3]. The meme mocking it still gets regular use, making "Live Laugh Love" more recognized as a joke than as genuine inspiration. ### Who wrote the original poem behind Live Laugh Love? Bessie Anderson Stanley, a Kansas resident, wrote the poem "Success" in 1904 for a magazine contest[1]. Despite frequent misattribution to Emerson and Stevenson, Stanley is the confirmed author[1]. ### Why is Live Laugh Love considered "basic"? The phrase was printed on so many mass-market products that it lost any sense of individuality. A 2011 Urban Dictionary entry defined it as something "shallow women stencil onto their bedroom walls," capturing the growing backlash against its oversaturation[4]. ### When did people start making fun of Live Laugh Love? Organized mockery appeared by September 2011 with the Urban Dictionary definition[4], and meme-format jokes became common on Reddit and Imgur by 2016-2017[2]. ### What is the Live Love Laugh Foundation? The Live Love Laugh Foundation is a mental health organization in India founded by actress Deepika Padukone, which takes its name from the phrase in its sincere, non-ironic form[3]. ### Why is Live Laugh Love on coffins? The phrase appeared on such a wide range of merchandise that it eventually made its way onto coffins and other funeral items[3], which itself became a point of mockery online. ## References 1. [Success by Bessie Anderson Stanley - Your Daily Poem]() 2. [Lifestyle - Cooking, Organizing, Gardening, Travel]() 3. [Lifestyle - Cooking, Organizing, Gardening, Travel]() 4. [Live Laugh Love - Know Your Meme]() 5. [Live, Laugh, Love]() 6. [Live Laugh Love - Urban Dictionary]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/live-laugh-love Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library