What is Not Today, Old Friend?

Not Today, Old Friend is a reaction image macro from The Simpsons featuring character Moe Szyslak looking at a noose before deciding against using it, typically used to express narrowly avoiding a bad situation.

Where did Not Today, Old Friend come from?

The image comes from the Simpsons episode "Whiskey Business" which aired on May 5, 2013. It became a meme format after UPROXX used it in 2014 and a Reddit user shared a Tumblr edit that March.

What does Not Today, Old Friend mean?

The meme expresses relief or resolve when facing a difficult situation. When used straight, it means things improved just in time. When edited to remove "not," it expresses dark humor about giving in to frustration.

How do you use Not Today, Old Friend?

Share the original image when you narrowly avoided disaster or decided against quitting. For darker humor, use the edited version without "not" in response to frustrating content or bait posts.

Is Not Today, Old Friend still popular?

The meme is a classic dark humor format that saw peak use between 2015 and 2016, with posts gaining thousands of upvotes on Reddit and steady circulation on 4chan. It remains recognizable on meme subreddits and image boards.

Not Today, Old Friend

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Published September 10, 2026

In May 2013, The Simpsons aired an episode featuring Moe Szyslak looking at a noose and saying "Not today, old friend," spawning a dark humor reaction image. The scene became a go-to meme for expressing when dire situations unexpectedly improve, with edits reversing the phrase to "Today, old friend" for grimmer punchlines.

internet memes

Overview

Not Today, Old Friend uses a screenshot of Moe Szyslak from The Simpsons standing before a noose with a contemplative expression. The image captures the moment before he delivers the line "Not today, old friend. But don't worry: holidays are just around the corner"1. The format works as shorthand for narrowly avoiding disaster or deciding against giving up.

The meme comes in two main variations. The original plays straight, expressing relief when something bad almost happened but didn't. Users post it after surviving a rough week, dodging a bullet at work, or getting unexpected good news. The inverted edit removes "not" from the caption, turning it into "Today, old friend," which flips the tone entirely3. This darker version became popular on 4chan as a reaction to bait posts and frustrating content3.

Both versions rely on the same absurdist Simpsons energy. The noose imagery is bleak, but the casual delivery makes it tragicomic. That tonal balance is what kept the format alive across platforms.

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Origin & Background

Platform

FOX Television / Reddit (viral spread)

Creator

The Simpsons writers

Date

2013

The scene comes from "Whiskey Business," a Simpsons episode that aired on FOX on May 5, 20131. In it, Moe Szyslak, the perpetually miserable bartender, looks at a noose hanging in his bar and addresses it like an old acquaintance before deciding against using it.

The earliest documented use of the screenshot as a meme appeared in January 2014, when UPROXX used it in an article about which Simpsons character might die2. Two months later, a Redditor named hero0fwar shared a two-panel edit originally created by an unidentified Tumblr user3. That post gained modest traction, setting the stage for the format's later spread.

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How It Spread

After the initial Reddit post in March 2014, the meme stayed relatively quiet until 2015. That year, posts appeared across r/TheSimpsons4 and r/me_irl5, with a Memedroid post by user davidsealover gaining over 2,300 points in November6.

December 2015 marked a turning point when an anonymous 4chan user posted the first known edit to the /co/ board, removing "not" from the caption3. This version spread quickly on 4chan as a response to bait threads and low-quality posts3. By February 2016, Imgur user FuckYouMeme posted a captioned version that gained over 1,560 points9.

The meme hit another peak in April 2016 when Redditor MerkuryNj posted to r/meirl and earned 6,600 upvotes10. Throughout the following years, both the original and inverted versions stayed in circulation on Reddit, Twitter, and 4chan, cementing it as a reliable dark humor format.

Timeline

2013-05-05

The Simpsons episode "Whiskey Business" airs on FOX, containing the original Moe noose scene[1].

2014-01-23

UPROXX uses the screenshot in an article about Simpsons characters[2].

2014-03-24

Redditor hero0fwar shares a two-panel edit originally from Tumblr[3].

2015-11-07

Memedroid user davidsealover posts a version gaining 2,300+ points[6].

2015-12-10

First known 4chan edit removes "not" from the caption, creating the darker variation[3].

2016-02-12

Imgur user FuckYouMeme posts a captioned version gaining 1,560+ points[9].

2016-04-19

Reddit post by MerkuryNj reaches 6,600 upvotes on r/meirl[10].

How to Use This Meme

Post the original "Not today, old friend" image when something nearly went wrong but worked out. Common contexts include surviving Monday, getting through finals week, or when a project deadline gets extended. For darker humor, use the edited version with "not" removed. This signals that the situation is bad enough to joke about giving in. The format works best when the caption or context makes the specific situation clear.