Fan art of the Scooby-Doo gang facing a monster under moonlight

Scooby-Doo

1969cartoon reference / catchphraseclassic

Published September 26, 2026

Scooby-Doo is the Hanna-Barbera animated mystery franchise that premiered in 1969 and grew into a fixture of internet joke culture through stoner readings of Shaggy and Scooby, Velma appreciation posts on Tumblr, and endlessly quoted lines like "you meddling kids." The Mystery Inc. gang's unmasking gag turned into a reusable template long before anyone called it a meme format.

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Overview

The meat of Scooby-Doo's meme life sits in a few recurring gags that fans keep pulling apart. The best known is the unmasking scene, where the gang rips a rubber mask off a supposed ghost to reveal a scheming adult, a beat that fan communities repurposed for political and pop-culture reveal jokes. The runner-up is Shaggy's stoner coding, which Urban Dictionary entries have long joked "subconciously makes you want to smoke weed," complete with running bits about the Mystery Machine, the munchies, and the paranoid vibes1.

Then there is Velma. Tumblr blogs like zoinksyeahscoobydoo built a whole aesthetic around her, with posts arguing that "the show should be called Velma" and cosplay pictures pairing her with X-Men's Cyclops, both fumbling for their glasses on the floor2. The 2010-2013 Cartoon Network revival Mystery Incorporated had its own fandom Tumblr running production teasers, sneak peeks and Crystal Cove lore around the Planispheric Disk3. Add in the 2002 live-action films with Freddie Prinze Jr., Sarah Michelle Gellar, Matthew Lillard and Linda Cardellini, and Scooby-Doo works from a decades-deep bench of jokes that keep circulating.

Origin & Background

Platform
CBS (show origin) / Tumblr (fandom spread)
Creator
Joe Ruby and Ken Spears; meme usages are fan-made and largely unattributed
Date
1969

Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! was created by Joe Ruby and Ken Spears for Hanna-Barbera and premiered on CBS on September 13, 19694. It ran for two original seasons, wrapping in 1971, then stayed in CBS rotation until 1976 before spinning off into a chain of revivals through the 1980s and 1990s, including Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo in 1979 and A Pup Named Scooby-Doo in 19884. The core premise, four teenagers and a talking dog rolling around in the Mystery Machine unmasking supposed ghosts as costumed grifters, kept resurfacing in new formats and fed decades of quotable moments that fans later hauled onto the internet.

How It Spread

The franchise's internet-era spread came from two directions at once: nostalgic reruns feeding fandom communities, and Warner Bros. putting the gang back on marquees with live action. On June 14, 2002, the first live-action Scooby-Doo film opened with Freddie Prinze Jr. as Fred, Sarah Michelle Gellar as Daphne, Matthew Lillard as Shaggy and Linda Cardellini as Velma5. Critics were rough on it, with a 30% Rotten Tomatoes score and a consensus calling it "a tired live-action update, filled with lame jokes"6, plus a Metacritic score of 357. Audiences ignored the reviews and pushed it past $275 million worldwide8.

A sequel, Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed, opened on March 26, 2004 with the Mystery Inc. gang battling past monsters brought back by a masked villain. It grossed over $181 million9 but landed worse critically at 21% on Rotten Tomatoes10 and 34 on Metacritic11.

The Tumblr era pushed the fandom back into image-and-gif territory. Blogs like scoobydoomysteryincorporated ran production stills, sneak peeks and episode promos for the Cartoon Network series, teasing arcs like Crystal Cove's "Most Hauntedest Place on Earth" tagline and the Planispheric Disk mystery3. Meanwhile zoinksyeahscoobydoo leaned into shitposting, Velma appreciation and cross-fandom cosplay2. The official Scooby-Doo Facebook page had over 17 million likes tallied as of April 2014, per Know Your Meme4.

Timeline

1969-09-13

Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! premieres on CBS, created by Joe Ruby and Ken Spears.

1979

Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo debuts, adding the divisive nephew character.

1988

A Pup Named Scooby-Doo starts a three-year run focused on the gang as kids.

2002-06-14

Live-action Scooby-Doo opens with Freddie Prinze Jr., Sarah Michelle Gellar, Matthew Lillard and Linda Cardellini.

2002

What's New, Scooby-Doo? begins its 2002-2006 run.

2004-03-26

Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed opens to weaker reviews and box office.

2010

Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated premieres on Cartoon Network, generating heavy Tumblr fandom activity.

2014-04

Know Your Meme records the official Scooby-Doo Facebook page passing 17 million likes.

How to Use This Meme

The unmasking template is used by dropping a "let's see who this really is" caption over a photo of an unmasked person or thing, mimicking the show's reveal beat. The "you meddling kids" line typically punctuates jokes about scheming villains foiled by nosy critics or journalists. Stoner riffs on the show pair Shaggy and Scooby with jokes about their perpetual munchies and the Mystery Machine1, while Velma appreciation posts often play on the "the show should be called Velma" running gag from Tumblr fandom2.

Frequently Asked Questions