# Meme Heaven Meme Heaven is a photoshop template showing recently deceased people, animals, or fictional characters ascending a cloud staircase into the sky. It appeared on Facebook in July 2016 with Harambe the Gorilla as the first subject, and became one of the go-to formats for internet-wide memorials that year. ## Origin The background image is a cloud staircase photo that first appeared online on August 12th, 2010 in an article on Meditationcenter.com[1]. The exact first meme edit is not documented, but the earliest known example was captured on July 5th, 2016 by aggregator Me.me, which scraped a since-deleted Facebook post placing Harambe the Gorilla at the top of the staircase, surrounded by eight dead celebrities with Cecil the Lion in the background[2]. Harambe had been killed at the Cincinnati Zoo six weeks earlier, and the meme rode the wave of Harambe tribute content that was flooding social media that summer[2]. That same day, Twitter user @dudethings4guys reposted the image, which pulled in over 100 retweets in the years that followed[2]. - **Platform:** Facebook (source image) / Twitter / Tumblr (viral spread) - **Creator:** Unknown - **Date:** 2016 ## Overview The template is built on a stock photo of a cloud staircase climbing into a bright sky, originally published in a 2010 Meditationcenter.com lecture page[1]. Editors drop cutout portraits of the recently deceased onto the steps, usually with the newest arrival at the top and earlier meme-famous dead figures already waiting further up[2]. The tone sits somewhere between sincere tribute and dark humor, since the crowd on the staircase quickly grew to include gorillas, lions, and cartoon characters alongside actual celebrities[2]. Part of the joke is the running roster. Once a new figure like Harambe is added, the image gets recycled for the next celebrity death, so the staircase acts as a growing group photo of the internet's departed[2]. Some edits break the rules entirely and put living people or non-living objects on the stairs to mark a metaphorical death, like a cancelled show or a lost meme[2]. ## How It Spread The template jumped to Tumblr on July 9th, 2016 when user browsedankmemes posted it, picking up more than 7,500 likes and reblogs over the next couple years[2]. From there it turned into a reusable format that got dusted off whenever a public figure or beloved character died in 2016, with fresh faces added to the existing lineup on the stairs[2]. A video version showed up on September 15th, 2016 from Twitter user @SamuelGrubbs1, which pulled in over 540,000 views[3]. Through 2017 and 2018, the template kept getting refreshed for new celebrity and fictional-character deaths, with newer edits piling additional characters onto the staircase and treating it like an ongoing group portrait of the departed[2]. Reddit users also ran with the format, posting variations that swapped in still-living people or non-human subjects to joke about metaphorical deaths[2]. ## How to Use To make a Meme Heaven edit, start with the cloud staircase background and paste cutout images of the subject at the top step, typically facing up or looking toward the sky. Common convention is to include earlier meme-famous dead figures like Harambe or Cecil the Lion lower on the stairs as a welcoming committee. Captions are often minimal, a name and dates, since the image does most of the work. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is Meme Heaven? Meme Heaven is a photoshop template that shows recently deceased people, animals, or fictional characters standing on a cloud staircase leading up into the sky[2]. ### Where did Meme Heaven come from? The background comes from a 2010 Meditationcenter.com article[1], and the meme itself was first spotted on July 5th, 2016 in a Facebook post placing Harambe the Gorilla at the top of the stairs[2]. ### What does Meme Heaven mean? It works as both a tribute and a running joke, sending the newly dead up to join earlier meme-famous departed figures like Harambe and Cecil the Lion on the same staircase[2]. ### How do you use Meme Heaven? Editors paste cutouts of the subject at the top of the cloud staircase, often with earlier meme-famous dead figures still visible on lower steps as a welcoming group[2]. ### Is Meme Heaven still popular? It hit peak use in 2016 and kept getting refreshed through 2017 and 2018 whenever a notable celebrity or character died, and is treated as a classic memorial template[2]. ## References 1. [https://meditationcenter.com/lecture/index.html]() 2. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/meme-heaven]() 3. [https://x.com/i/status/776168220143345666]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/meme-heaven Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library