Scumbag Hat

2011exploitable imageclassic

Scumbag Hat is an exploitable image of a brown houndstooth fitted baseball cap, first worn sideways by the advice animal Scumbag Steve in January 2011. Redditors isolated the cap and started pasting it onto photos of people, animals, and abstract concepts to mark the subject as sleazy or annoying, spawning the 'Scumbag X' snowclone and thousands of derivatives.

exploitable templatessnowclone memesadvice animalsphotoshop memesearly 2010s memes

Overview

Scumbag Hat is an exploitable image showing a brown, houndstooth-patterned fitted baseball cap worn sideways2. The cap originated with the January 2011 advice animal Scumbag Steve3, and users photoshop the isolated cap onto photos of people, animals, or abstract concepts to portray the subject as sleazy, dishonest, or a letdown. It functions as a visual modifier that frames whatever it lands on as a source of annoyance, similar in logic to how Hipster Glasses code their wearer as an elitist4.

The physical hat is a limited edition Boston Red Sox A-Tooth fitted model manufactured under license by New Era2. From that single accessory grew the 'Scumbag X' snowclone, which produced thousands of variations by attaching the cap to brains, cats, historical figures, and inanimate objects. By May 2012, Quickmeme was hosting more than 8,800 derivative templates featuring the cap5, while Reddit carried over 48,000 posts tagged with the keyword 'Scumbag'1.

How It Spread

Reddit was the main incubator for Scumbag X derivatives, with r/AdviceAnimals driving much of the early volume1. The first wave of spin-offs included Scumbag Dog, Scumbag Stefano, and Scumbag Mubarak, the last of which mocked former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak for cutting off national internet access during the Arab Spring protests4. The template moved fast from targeting real people to targeting abstract nouns like brains, DNA, and alcohol.

Some of the most durable derivatives were Scumbag Brain (around 21,000 instances), Scumbag Stacy (9,000), Scumbag Redditor (6,000), Scumbag Christian (2,400), Scumbag DNA (1,393), and Scumbag Alcohol (1,564)5. Scumbag Congress arrived in early April 2011, pairing photos of the US Capitol with captions about the federal budget crisis2, and came back for debates over SOPA and PIPA later that year, NDAA and CISPA in 2012, and the NSA PRISM story in 2013. Some creators eventually made meta versions that put the hat onto the hat itself1.

How to Use This Meme

To make a Scumbag X image, users typically grab a transparent PNG of the tilted brown houndstooth cap and drop it onto a photo of whatever subject they want to frame as sleazy, unreliable, or hypocritical. A common convention is to add an impact-font caption in the advice-animal style, listing a shady or inconsiderate action the subject supposedly commits1.

Frequently Asked Questions

Scumbag Hat

2011exploitable imageclassic

Scumbag Hat is an exploitable image of a brown houndstooth fitted baseball cap, first worn sideways by the advice animal Scumbag Steve in January 2011. Redditors isolated the cap and started pasting it onto photos of people, animals, and abstract concepts to mark the subject as sleazy or annoying, spawning the 'Scumbag X' snowclone and thousands of derivatives.

exploitable templates snowclone memes advice animals photoshop memes early 2010s memes

Overview

Scumbag Hat is an exploitable image showing a brown, houndstooth-patterned fitted baseball cap worn sideways2. The cap originated with the January 2011 advice animal Scumbag Steve3, and users photoshop the isolated cap onto photos of people, animals, or abstract concepts to portray the subject as sleazy, dishonest, or a letdown. It functions as a visual modifier that frames whatever it lands on as a source of annoyance, similar in logic to how Hipster Glasses code their wearer as an elitist4.

The physical hat is a limited edition Boston Red Sox A-Tooth fitted model manufactured under license by New Era2. From that single accessory grew the 'Scumbag X' snowclone, which produced thousands of variations by attaching the cap to brains, cats, historical figures, and inanimate objects. By May 2012, Quickmeme was hosting more than 8,800 derivative templates featuring the cap5, while Reddit carried over 48,000 posts tagged with the keyword 'Scumbag'1.

How It Spread

Reddit was the main incubator for Scumbag X derivatives, with r/AdviceAnimals driving much of the early volume1. The first wave of spin-offs included Scumbag Dog, Scumbag Stefano, and Scumbag Mubarak, the last of which mocked former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak for cutting off national internet access during the Arab Spring protests4. The template moved fast from targeting real people to targeting abstract nouns like brains, DNA, and alcohol.

Some of the most durable derivatives were Scumbag Brain (around 21,000 instances), Scumbag Stacy (9,000), Scumbag Redditor (6,000), Scumbag Christian (2,400), Scumbag DNA (1,393), and Scumbag Alcohol (1,564)5. Scumbag Congress arrived in early April 2011, pairing photos of the US Capitol with captions about the federal budget crisis2, and came back for debates over SOPA and PIPA later that year, NDAA and CISPA in 2012, and the NSA PRISM story in 2013. Some creators eventually made meta versions that put the hat onto the hat itself1.

How to Use This Meme

To make a Scumbag X image, users typically grab a transparent PNG of the tilted brown houndstooth cap and drop it onto a photo of whatever subject they want to frame as sleazy, unreliable, or hypocritical. A common convention is to add an impact-font caption in the advice-animal style, listing a shady or inconsiderate action the subject supposedly commits1.

Frequently Asked Questions