Pawn Stars is a series of image macros and catchphrases based on the History Channel reality show set in a Las Vegas pawnshop, mostly built around Rick Harrison's negotiation lines.

What does Pawn Stars mean?

In meme form, Pawn Stars means Rick Harrison downplaying an item and lowballing the seller, usually with the line about a 'buddy who's an expert' in whatever's on the counter.

How do you use Pawn Stars?

Pair a still of Rick with a caption written in his negotiation voice: cautious appraisal, a shrug about market value, and a lowball offer for whatever the joke is really about.

Is Pawn Stars still popular?

The Pawn Stars show is still airing on the History Channel, though the image macros peaked as an early-2010s advice animal format and read as classic-era memes today.

Pawn Stars

Q: Where did Pawn Stars come from?

The meme started on 4chan in February 2010 when an anonymous user posted the show's opening monologue as a copypasta, and image macros of Rick Harrison followed in the same threads.

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Published September 21, 2026

Pawn Stars is a set of image macros and catchphrases based on the History Channel reality show about the Harrison family's Las Vegas pawnshop. The meme took off on 4chan in early 2010 when an anonymous user posted the show's opening monologue as a copypasta, then grew into one of the most-quoted advice animal formats of the early 2010s, built around host Rick Harrison's endless supply of expert 'buddies.'

reality tv origin memes advice animals catchphrase memes copypasta memes 4chan memes

Overview

The core format pairs stills of Rick Harrison with captions lifted from the show's negotiation scenes, letting any everyday object stand in as the item on the counter1. The most-quoted lines include 'I've got a buddy who's an expert in this and I'd like to have him take a look at it,' 'There's no market for stuff like that,' and 'I'm really interested in this item, but I don't know enough about it'3.

The joke works because the show itself is so formulaic: Rick feigns uncertainty, calls in an off-screen expert, the expert shaves the price, and the seller takes it. That structure turned every stock line into a copypasta ready to drop into a caption, and the format eventually spawned parallel image macro series based on Rick's negotiation script1. Specific viral posts are not linked in the available sourcing, though the format's peak circulation ran through advice animal caption generators and forum crossposts.

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Origin & Background

Platform

4chan /b/ (origin), Meme Generator (viral spread)

Date

2010

The meme began on 4chan's /b/ (random) board on February 25th, 2010, when an anonymous user posted the show's opening monologue as a copypasta and follow-up threads paired stills of the shop's owners with advice animal captions built around Rick Harrison's negotiation lines3. The show itself had premiered on the History Channel on July 19th, 2009 and centered on shop founder Richard 'The Old Man' Harrison, his son Rick, and Rick's son Corey at the World Famous Gold & Silver Pawn Shop in Las Vegas2.

How It Spread

By May 2010 the format had jumped from /b/ to dedicated caption generators, with 'Pawn Stars' pages going live on DIYLOL and Meme Generator1. Over the next two months the image macros pushed into FARK forums and FunnyJunk in June, then IGN's boards in July, pulling the joke out of chan culture and into broader forum audiences.

Through 2011 the format kept spreading, showing up on BodyBuilding Forum, Memebase, Tumblr and BuzzFeed1. By January 2011 Pawn Stars was the History Channel's highest-rated series, sitting second on cable behind Jersey Shore, and the cast was recognizable enough that any Rick joke still landed. That same October, an anonymous 4chan poster shared a picture of the cast with the shop's real phone number and told readers to 'prank call Pawn Stars and ask for Battletoads,' pulling hundreds of replies from callers reporting back what happened.

When Richard Harrison died from complications of Parkinson's disease on June 25th, 2018, tribute edits and Photoshops of 'The Old Man' hit the front page of r/dankmemes the same day3.

Timeline

2009-07-19

Pawn Stars premieres on the History Channel.

2010-02-25

Anonymous 4chan /b/ user posts the show's opening monologue as a copypasta, kicking off the meme.

2010-05

'Pawn Stars' caption generator pages launch on DIYLOL and Meme Generator.

2010-06

Image macros spread to FARK and FunnyJunk.

2010-07

Format hits the IGN forums.

2011-01

Pawn Stars becomes the History Channel's highest-rated series, second on cable behind Jersey Shore.

2011-10-04

4chan 'prank call Pawn Stars and ask for Battletoads' thread pulls hundreds of replies.

2018-06-25

Richard 'The Old Man' Harrison dies of Parkinson's complications; tribute edits reach r/dankmemes.

How to Use This Meme

To make a Pawn Stars meme, take a still of Rick Harrison from the show and pair it with a caption in his voice: an over-cautious appraisal followed by a lowball offer. Common convention is to sub in whatever object the joke is really about, whether that's a game console, a cryptocurrency, or a political concept, and let Rick's script do the rest1.