# Shark In The Woods

Shark In The Woods is an image macro built from surreal oil paintings by Australian artist Chris Austin showing sharks drifting through forests. iFunny users turned the artwork into a running joke in October 2021 with captions like "Deep in the Missouri Woods," and video edits set to nature sounds and TikTok effects pushed it to a second viral wave in 2023.

## Origin
Chris Austin kicked off the series on March 22, 2019 with an Instagram post of orca whales floating around a house, the first in his ongoing run of marine animals placed in land-based dreamscapes[4]. He followed on May 2, 2019 with his first shark piece[10], then kept adding paintings over the next two years. The specific image that fueled the meme came on September 3, 2021, when Austin posted a shark drifting between tall pines on Instagram, pulling in around 10,600 likes[1].

The meme format itself arrived about a month later. On October 13, 2021, iFunny user @MoonLittt paired Austin's shark-in-the-woods painting with a bar chart of shark attack statistics and the caption "Deep in the Missouri Woods," turning the surreal picture into a joke about landlocked shark attacks[2].

- **Platform:** Instagram (artwork) / iFunny (viral spread)
- **Creator:** Chris Austin (paintings); iFunny user @MoonLittt (first meme)
- **Date:** 2021

## Overview
Shark In The Woods, also known as Shark In The Forest, Floating Shark In The Woods, or Flying Shark In The Woods, pulls from Chris Austin's photorealistic paintings of great white sharks gliding between pine trees and over rural buildings[1]. The images come from his longer dream-landscape series pairing marine creatures with land settings, and the most reposted single painting shows a shark cruising through dense Appalachian-style forest[1].

Memes using the picture treat the obviously impossible scene like a mundane local hazard, with captions framing the shark as a woodland cryptid, a backwoods threat, or an unwelcome visitor who had better not be tweaking[3]. Common caption formats include regional variations such as "Deep in the Missouri Woods," reaction-style text like "Heard There Was Tomfoolery Here," and video edits that stitch together Austin's paintings over nature sounds or TikTok sound effects for a deadpan absurdist feel[9]. The joke works because the delivery stays straight-faced, as if a shark hovering past the trees is just a thing the locals have learned to deal with[4].

## How to Use
The common convention is to drop one of Chris Austin's shark paintings into a post with a deadpan caption that treats the shark as a familiar rural threat, local cryptid, or regional warning. Captions often include a US state ("Deep in the Missouri Woods"), a reaction-image phrase, or a crossover with another meme format like "I'm Coming Over You Better Not Be Tweaking." Video edits typically pair Austin's full painting series with nature sounds or TikTok's bird-sounds effect for a quieter, more unsettling tone.

## Frequently Asked Questions
### What is Shark In The Woods?
It's an image macro built from Chris Austin's surreal paintings of sharks floating through forests, usually captioned to frame the shark as a local rural danger or cryptid[1].

### Where did Shark In The Woods come from?
Chris Austin posted the central painting to Instagram on September 3, 2021[1], and iFunny user @MoonLittt turned it into a meme a month later with the caption "Deep in the Missouri Woods"[2].

### What does Shark In The Woods mean?
The joke plays the clearly impossible scene straight, treating a floating shark as a mundane woodland threat with captions like "Deep in the Missouri Woods" or "Heard There Was Tomfoolery Here"[2][4].

### How do you use Shark In The Woods?
Pair one of Austin's shark paintings with a deadpan caption that treats the shark as a local danger or cryptid, often with a US state name or a crossover with another meme format like "I'm Coming Over You Better Not Be Tweaking"[3].

### Is Shark In The Woods still popular?
The format peaked in 2022 and 2023 through viral TikTok and Instagram video edits that gave Austin's paintings a second life, with @mxnke.vfx's bird-sounds edit alone pulling roughly 160,100 plays[9].

## References
1. [https://www.instagram.com/p/CTX2xSdLulC/](<https://www.instagram.com/p/CTX2xSdLulC/>)
2. [https://ifunny.co/picture/shark-attacks-number-of-attacks-2-10-11-100-101-MJKVNP509](<https://ifunny.co/picture/shark-attacks-number-of-attacks-2-10-11-100-101-MJKVNP509>)
3. [https://twitter.com/fyrewyre_/status/1451209545620103176](<https://twitter.com/fyrewyre_/status/1451209545620103176>)
4. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/shark-in-the-woods](<https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/shark-in-the-woods>)
5. [https://www.reddit.com/r/memes/comments/qcziul/it_could_attack_at_any_moment_oh_no/](<https://www.reddit.com/r/memes/comments/qcziul/it_could_attack_at_any_moment_oh_no/>)
6. [https://www.instagram.com/p/CVDR_dJgO4j/](<https://www.instagram.com/p/CVDR_dJgO4j/>)
7. [https://teathattast.tumblr.com/post/671511661127106560](<https://teathattast.tumblr.com/post/671511661127106560>)
8. [https://www.youtube.com/shorts/mptXDREwx1s](<https://www.youtube.com/shorts/mptXDREwx1s>)
9. [https://www.tiktok.com/@mxnke.vfx/video/7201725481236860203](<https://www.tiktok.com/@mxnke.vfx/video/7201725481236860203>)
10. [https://www.instagram.com/p/Bw-Qanvj4HO/](<https://www.instagram.com/p/Bw-Qanvj4HO/>)
11. [https://twitter.com/Ac03x45dh3/status/1451263947718504455](<https://twitter.com/Ac03x45dh3/status/1451263947718504455>)

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Source: https://meme.com/memes/shark-in-the-woods
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