Pablo Escobar Waiting — Pablo Escobar sitting alone on a swing bench looking pensive

Pablo Escobar Waiting

2016image macroclassic

Published September 20, 2026

Pablo Escobar Waiting, also called Sad Pablo Escobar, is a three-panel image macro pulled from Netflix's Narcos, where Wagner Moura's Escobar sits alone in three different spots with a hollow, defeated stare1. Published anonymously on Meme Generator in October 2016, one month after Narcos season 2 aired, the template turned trivial waiting frustrations into one of Reddit's go-to reaction formats through 2017 and 20182.

multi panel memes reaction memes netflix memes 2016 memes frustration memes

Overview

The template pairs three screencaps of Wagner Moura's Escobar looking utterly checked out: sitting in an empty field, slumped at a kitchen table, and staring into a drained backyard pool2. Users stack a caption on top describing something they are waiting for, and the three panels sell the emotional arc of that wait, from bored to miserable to fully broken. The joke works because the images are pulled from genuinely heavy dramatic beats in Narcos season 2, so the mismatch between real cartel-boss despair and, say, a delayed food order is what makes the format land3.

Captions typically follow a 'When...' setup: waiting on a package, waiting for the next episode of a show, waiting for a coworker to show up. The static, unedited screengrabs and the lack of a payoff panel keep the format easy to remix, which is how it stayed in circulation on subreddits like /r/funny and /r/AdviceAnimals for close to two years2.

Origin & Background

Platform
Meme Generator / Reddit (viral spread)
Date
2016

Netflix released the second season of Narcos, its drama about Colombian cartel leader Pablo Escobar, on September 2, 20161. About five weeks later, on October 8, 2016, an anonymous Meme Generator account uploaded the three-panel template of Moura's Escobar in the field, the kitchen, and the pool2. There is no confirmed creator behind the original template; the uploader is only identified as an anonymous Meme Generator user, and no fan is known to have made the assembled image before that date.

By the eighteen-month mark, KYM tracked more than 950 derivative posts built off that original template2.

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How It Spread

The first crossover to Reddit happened almost immediately. On October 11, 2016, Redditor Sdreka posted a version in /r/oneplus captioned 'When you bought oneplus 3 but the site says pending shipment,' which cleared 525 points at 90% upvoted2. The tech-subreddit fit was tight, since gadget delivery delays are exactly the kind of low-stakes agony the template was built for.

The format moved into general-purpose humor subs the following year. On August 18, 2017, Redditor Navin_R_Johnson79 posted a version to /r/AdviceAnimals reading 'When you watched the leaked episode and now have to wait for 10 days instead of 7,' which pulled 675+ points and 15 comments2. Then, on February 5, 2018, Redditor Summy1XD hit /r/funny with 'When that co-worker you always eat lunch with is sick...,' and that post climbed past 40,000 points and 510 comments over three months, the biggest documented single hit for the template2.

After that /r/funny peak the format kept circulating as a general-purpose reaction image for anticipation, though its heaviest documented activity clustered in the 2016 to 2018 window2.

Timeline

2016-09-02

Netflix releases Narcos season 2, the source of the three screencaps.

2016-10-08

An anonymous Meme Generator user uploads the three-panel Sad Pablo Escobar template.

2016-10-11

Redditor Sdreka posts the OnePlus 3 'pending shipment' version in /r/oneplus, earning 525+ points.

2017-08-18

Redditor Navin_R_Johnson79 posts the leaked-episode version in /r/AdviceAnimals, earning 675+ points.

2018-02-05

Redditor Summy1XD posts the 'coworker is sick' version in /r/funny, which cleared 40,000+ points and 510 comments.

How to Use This Meme

The common convention is to add a single 'When...' caption at the top of the three-panel image describing whatever you are stuck waiting for, then let Moura's unedited screencaps do the emotional work. The waits are usually low-stakes and mundane, since the gag comes from applying Escobar's Narcos-level despair to something trivial2.

Frequently Asked Questions