What is Oh Shit I Took Both Pills?

An exploitable image macro that stacks the red and blue Matrix pills over a bottom panel showing wherever the poster is "stuck in," with the caption "oh shit I took both pills now I'm stuck in X".

Where did Oh Shit I Took Both Pills come from?

The Facebook page Reading-Berks Hotdog Society posted the first version on September 26, 2021, using a photo of Reading, Pennsylvania.

What does Oh Shit I Took Both Pills mean?

It flips Morpheus's choice from The Matrix: by taking both pills, the character ends up stranded somewhere mundane like their hometown or an unwelcome video game.

How do you use Oh Shit I Took Both Pills?

Keep the top panel with the seated man and the Matrix pills, then drop in an image of the place or scene you are joking about being stuck in, like a city or a game screen.

Is Oh Shit I Took Both Pills still popular?

The template peaked in late December 2021 and early January 2022 and still gets occasional revivals through city and video game variants.

Oh Shit I Took Both Pills

2021image macroclassic

Published October 24, 2026

Oh Shit I Took Both Pills is an image macro using a seated man staring at the red and blue pills from The Matrix, captioned "oh shit I took both pills now I'm stuck in X," with the X slot filled by a city or video game screen. The format began on a Facebook meme page in September 2021 and went viral in late December through Twitter and Instagram remixes. By early January 2022, the trashcanpaul Instagram edit had passed 127,800 likes.

matrix memes exploitable templates image macro memes delayed virality memes self deprecating memes

Overview

The template works as a two-panel image macro. The top image shows a seated man, borrowed from the earlier "I Shoulda Never Smoked That Shit" format, staring at an outstretched hand holding both the red and blue pills from The Matrix. Underneath sits whatever place or scene the poster claims to be stuck in2. Edits swap the lower panel for photos of specific cities, album covers, video game screenshots, or any location worth joking about being trapped inside4.

Tone tends toward self-deprecating regret about one's hometown or a disliked video game, played against The Matrix's choice-between-realities setup by picking neither1. The gag inverts Morpheus's offer: instead of waking up or staying asleep, the character botches the dose and ends up in a mundane purgatory.

Gallery

Origin & Background

Platform

Facebook (origin) / Twitter / Instagram (viral spread)

Creator

Reading-Berks Hotdog Society

Date

2021

The format first appeared on September 26, 2021, when the Facebook page Reading-Berks Hotdog Society posted the original macro, a two-panel edit using Reading, Pennsylvania in the bottom slot2. Within one week the post collected around 350 reactions and 951 shares4. Timing lined up with promotion for The Matrix Resurrections, which arrived in theaters that December4.

How It Spread

The Facebook post sat quietly for three months. On December 27, 2021, Twitter user @ZOMBIESHARK38 reposted the image, and that version drew roughly 91,800 likes within a week1. A day later, @OneFeIISwoop ran the first known variant, replacing Reading with a photo of Reno, Nevada. A screenshot of the Reno version shared by @arika_dar hit about 17,500 likes in 24 hours3.

Instagram picked up the template the same week. Account this.and.a.blunt posted a December 28 edit swapping the bottom panel for a Tori Amos album cover, which drew around 1,700 likes over six days5. Two days later, gamewatchtoday ran an Overwatch version that finished with roughly 3,700 likes in five days6. The December 31 edit by trashcanpaul topped them all with about 127,800 likes7.

By January 2022, the format had spilled onto Facebook meme pages like WarcraftMemes, where the bottom panel showed a World of Warcraft screen instead of a city8. Users then inserted their own towns and video games, giving the template a general "where am I trapped" flexibility.

Timeline

2021-09-26

Reading-Berks Hotdog Society posts the original macro on Facebook, using a photo of Reading, Pennsylvania in the bottom panel.

2021-12-27

Twitter user @ZOMBIESHARK38 reposts the image; the tweet collects around 91,800 likes in one week.

2021-12-28

@OneFeIISwoop posts the first variant with Reno, Nevada, and Instagram account this.and.a.blunt posts a Tori Amos album cover version.

2021-12-30

Instagram account gamewatchtoday posts an Overwatch-themed version that reaches about 3,700 likes.

2021-12-31

Meme account trashcanpaul posts a version that reaches roughly 127,800 likes on Instagram.

2022-01