Two-panel comic of a girl behind a broken brick wall as a boy walks away, with captions reading 'She was close to giving up' and 'But she couldn't have seen

She Was Close to Giving Up

2018exploitableclassic

Published October 23, 2026

She Was Close to Giving Up is an exploitable three-panel comic in which a young man about to abandon digging through a brick wall for his love interest suddenly smashes it apart in the final panel. The remix format first appeared on Pikabu in February 20181 and went viral in December 2023 with a Dragon Ball flying-kick edit that racked up tens of thousands of likes on X4.

exploitable templates webcomic memes bait and switch memes delayed virality memes tonal whiplash memes

Overview

Edits of the format keep the first two panels intact: a young man chipping at a brick wall with a pickaxe, then dropping it and walking away as other suitors approach the woman on the other side. Creators then swap the third panel for a violent reversal in which the man charges back and demolishes the wall, usually sending the woman flying with the force of the hit1. The joke lands because the original webcomic was a moody metaphor about futile effort in love, and the edited punchline shreds that tone with slapstick overkill3.

Most popular versions redraw or replace the final panel with a character from anime, games, or film doing the smashing. Dragon Ball's Goku performing a flying kick became the breakout template in late 20234, and Mario and Luigi versions followed within days5. The humor shifts from romance to crossover power fantasy, with the woman reduced to collateral damage of whichever franchise lands the finishing blow.

Origin & Background

Platform
Unknown webcomic / Pikabu (edit origin)
Date
2018

The source comic was posted by an unknown artist before February 2018 and shows a young man abandoning his effort to break through a brick wall to reach his love interest, with the last panel revealing other men already approaching her3. The first known edit of the format appeared on February 9th, 2018, when Pikabu user Loonyloon posted a version in which the boy turns around and charges the wall so hard that the final panel sends the girl flying1. The author of that edit is not confirmed, and Loonyloon's post itself picked up only around 20 upvotes on Pikabu over seven years1.

How It Spread

The edit stayed in slow circulation through the early 2020s before hitting a wider audience. On June 23rd, 2021, Redditor waifusenpaix posted a Naruto version to /r/memes that gathered more than 25,000 upvotes2. Viral traction arrived in late 2023 after a Facebook page replaced the final panel with Goku delivering a flying kick, drawing over 74,000 reactions and 1,600 shares3.

On December 2nd, 2023, X user @Extralongdokkan reposted the Dragon Ball edit and collected over 1,800 reposts and 16,000 likes4. Days later, on December 7th, @MarioRPGCentral posted a Mario and Luigi version that reached about 2,100 reposts and 13,000 likes5. The flurry of franchise-swapped edits in December 2023 is what pushed the format out of niche repost pages and into mainstream meme feeds3.

Timeline

2018-02-09

Pikabu user Loonyloon posts the earliest known edit, with the boy smashing the wall and sending the girl flying.

2019-05-25

Facebook page Khmer Like reposts the original unedited comic with a Khmer caption about wasted effort.

2021-06-23

Redditor waifusenpaix shares a Naruto version to /r/memes that reaches over 25,000 upvotes.

2023-11-29

Facebook page SaiyanGirl posts a Dragon Ball edit with Goku delivering a flying kick, drawing over 74,000 reactions.

2023-12-02

X user @Extralongdokkan reposts the Goku edit, which gathers over 16,000 likes.

2023-12-07

@MarioRPGCentral posts a Mario and Luigi version that reaches over 13,000 likes on X.

Frequently Asked Questions