The format pairs the screen grab of a devastated Vito Corleone standing over his son's body with a caption that names some trivial or self-inflicted grievance the poster wants to mourn1. The joke works by matching one of cinema's most solemn images with something petty, whether that's a haircut gone wrong, a sequel that fumbled the source material, or a friend eating the last slice of pizza4.

Most versions keep the still unedited and let the caption do the work, though photoshopped variants sometimes swap Sonny's body for another character or object being lamented5. The visual grammar is simple enough that the meme stayed usable across totally unrelated fandoms, from anime subreddits to gaming communities6.

To use the format, drop the still of Vito staring down at Sonny's body and add a caption naming the thing you're pretending to mourn. Common conventions include labeling Sonny's body with the ruined subject (a franchise reboot, a food order, a haircut) or writing the caption above the image so the quote reads as the poster's own reaction. The joke typically works best when the grievance is trivial enough to make the operatic sorrow of the shot feel absurd.