Nikola Tesla And Albert Einstein — Caricature of Nikola Tesla holding electric orb and Albert Einstein holding a galaxy against a starry background

Nikola Tesla And Albert Einstein

2023reaction imagedeclining

Published August 12, 2026

Nikola Tesla and Albert Einstein is a TikTok reaction image built around a caricature of the two scientists standing back-to-back, used in late 2023 to ironically frame idiotic gameplay clips as strokes of genius.

reaction memes ironic memes tiktok sound trends delayed virality memes exploitable templates

Overview

Nikola Tesla and Albert Einstein is a reaction image built around a caricature drawing of the two scientists standing back-to-back, with Tesla gripping crackling electricity in one fist and Einstein cradling a swirling universe in the other1. The picture became a TikTok trend in late 2023, usually parked at the bottom of a split-screen clip while some deeply unimpressive footage played above it5.

The entire joke hinges on the mismatch. The image insists you are witnessing pure genius, while the video above tends to show a player fumbling a basic Plants vs. Zombies round or pulling off some other underwhelming stunt5. That ironic gap between the framing and the actual content is the whole punchline of the Nikola Tesla and Albert Einstein format6.

Origin & Background

Platform
Jason Seiler's portfolio (source image) / TikTok (viral spread)
Creator
Jason Seiler
Date
2023

The illustration was drawn by American caricature artist Jason Seiler for the 2010 book "They Called Me Mad" by science writer John Monahan2. Seiler posted the artwork to his personal portfolio three years after the book came out, on June 18, 2013, which is where the piece started drifting into wider circulation online1.

Before TikTok picked it up, the drawing lived quietly as a shareable science-nerd image. It was reposted to Tumblr in 2013 and made its way to 9GAG by 2016, with scattered Pinterest use in between, but none of that early activity turned it into a proper meme8.

How It Spread

The Nikola Tesla and Albert Einstein image finally hit critical mass on TikTok almost a decade after Seiler uploaded it. On August 28, 2023, TikToker @crazymonkbannedaccount posted a Plants vs. Zombies gameplay clip with the caricature pinned underneath, set to a sound built from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles theme4. That video pulled roughly 1.9 million plays and 284,900 likes within two months5.

Days later, on September 2, 2023, TikToker @yoozuwu ran the same template and picked up around 1.7 million plays and 232,700 likes in a month, which locked in the format for other creators6. Through September, the joke started shifting into photo slideshows and jumping to other platforms.

On October 3, 2023, the X account @voicemod parked the image under a reply to IShowSpeed's Elephant Toothpaste Experiment livestream, drawing over 2,300 likes in a day7. By October 4, the main TikTok sound tied to the Nikola Tesla and Albert Einstein trend had passed 20,200 posts5.

▶

Watch Video

TikTok

How to Use This Meme

The typical setup is a split-screen or stitched TikTok. The top half shows a clip of someone doing something obviously stupid, often botched Plants vs. Zombies gameplay, while the Tesla and Einstein caricature sits at the bottom, commonly paired with the TMNT theme sound5. The framing insists you are watching brilliance in motion, and viewers are supposed to read the contradiction as the joke6.

Frequently Asked Questions