Slaps Roof of Car

2014Phrasal template / image macrosemi-active

Also known as: Car Salesman Meme · "This Bad Boy Can Fit So Much"

Slaps Roof of Car is a 2018 phrasal meme template featuring a car salesman slapping a vehicle's roof, originating from a 2014 tweet and defined by the catchphrase "this bad boy can fit so much [X] in it.

"Slaps Roof of Car" is a phrasal meme template built around a fictional car salesman pitching an absurd deal. The format follows a simple script: the salesman slaps the roof of a car and declares "this bad boy can fit so much [X] in it," where X is something ridiculous. Originating from a 2014 tweet about spaghetti, the meme exploded across Twitter and Reddit in mid-2018 and became one of that summer's defining formats.

snowclone memesexploitable templatesabsurdist humor memesdelayed virality memes

Overview

The meme features a mock sales pitch between a car dealer and a potential buyer. In its visual form, it shows a drawn or stock-photo-style image of a salesman confidently patting the roof of a car while a customer looks on2. The comedy comes from the salesman's pitch being completely unhinged. Instead of touting fuel efficiency or leather seats, the salesman brags about how much spaghetti, anxiety, or poor life choices the car can hold3.

The format works because it takes something universally familiar, the pushy car salesman stereotype, and stuffs it with the most illogical claim imaginable5. The template is dead simple to remix: swap out the X variable and you've got a new joke. That low barrier to entry made it spread fast and far.

On September 30, 2014, Twitter user @OBiiieeee posted a tweet that read: "Car Salesman: *slaps roof of car* this bad boy can fit so much fucking spaghetti in it"4. The post picked up over 7,700 retweets and 13,000 likes over the next four years4. Less than a month later, on October 28, 2014, Twitter user @Carlitos_N posted one of the earliest variations, writing a version where the salesman gets spooked by a spider hanging off the mirror and quits on the spot4.

The text format floated around Twitter for years without an accompanying image. The stock photograph most associated with the meme, "Car dealer showing vehicle," was published on July 9, 2015 by photographer Katarzyna Bialasiewicz on Dreamstime.com4. The following year, YourMechanic.com commissioned an illustration based on the stock photo for an article titled "How to Effectively Deal With a Car Salesman," published February 26, 20164. That illustration would later become the meme's iconic visual.

Origin & Background

Platform
Twitter (original tweet), Reddit / Twitter (viral spread)
Key People
@OBiiieeee, @MirGucci
Date
2014 (tweet), 2018 (viral explosion)

On September 30, 2014, Twitter user @OBiiieeee posted a tweet that read: "Car Salesman: *slaps roof of car* this bad boy can fit so much fucking spaghetti in it"4. The post picked up over 7,700 retweets and 13,000 likes over the next four years4. Less than a month later, on October 28, 2014, Twitter user @Carlitos_N posted one of the earliest variations, writing a version where the salesman gets spooked by a spider hanging off the mirror and quits on the spot4.

The text format floated around Twitter for years without an accompanying image. The stock photograph most associated with the meme, "Car dealer showing vehicle," was published on July 9, 2015 by photographer Katarzyna Bialasiewicz on Dreamstime.com4. The following year, YourMechanic.com commissioned an illustration based on the stock photo for an article titled "How to Effectively Deal With a Car Salesman," published February 26, 20164. That illustration would later become the meme's iconic visual.

How It Spread

The meme sat dormant for three years after the original tweet. On December 18, 2017, Redditor sweetums1313 reposted @OBiiieeee's tweet to the r/me_irl subreddit, where it earned over 13,300 upvotes and 130 comments4. This brought the format back into circulation but didn't trigger a full breakout yet.

The real explosion came on June 25, 2018, when Twitter user @MirGucci paired the original tweet's text with the YourMechanic illustration of the car salesman and buyer5. That post pulled in over 875 retweets and 2,400 likes, and it was the spark that lit the fuse4. Within 24 hours, Reddit's r/dankmemes was flooded with variations. One of the first, by Redditor Levardio, photoshopped the image to read "*slaps roof of format* this bad boy can fit so many fucking effortless memes in it," a meta-commentary that racked up 13,000 upvotes4.

From there, the meme spread to Instagram and dominated Twitter throughout the summer of 20181. Fandoms worked iconic storylines into the template5. Brands jumped in too. Wendy's, already known for its sharp social media presence, posted its own version1. The brand participation was so aggressive that some declared the meme dead on arrival. Reddit's r/dankmemes community started posting retirement notices for the format5.

By 2019, the meme's peak popularity had faded2. But the template proved durable. Its simple structure, a salesman pitching something absurd, made it easy to revive whenever a new topic fit the format3.

Platforms

TwitterRedditTwitter

Timeline

2019-01-01

Meme still see steady use

2020-01-01

Slaps Roof of Car reached mainstream popularity and media coverage

View on Google Trends

How to Use This Meme

The format typically follows this script:

1

Start with "Car Salesman:" or just "*slaps roof of [object]*"

2

Follow with "this bad boy can fit so much [absurd thing] in it"

3

The object being slapped is usually a car, but people often swap it for anything: a laptop, a country, a human body

4

The "absurd thing" is the punchline. It works best when it's completely unrelated to the object, like "existential dread" or "spaghetti"

Create Your Own

Cultural Impact

The meme tapped into a universal cultural reference: the stereotype of the sleazy, over-eager car salesman5. That made it instantly readable across different audiences. During the summer of 2018, it became one of the most heavily remixed formats on both Twitter and Reddit1.

Brand accounts adopting the format marked a notable moment. Wendy's participation was widely shared, though many meme communities saw corporate involvement as a death knell for the format5. Thrillist compared its staying power unfavorably to "Distracted Boyfriend," predicting it might burn out quickly due to brand oversaturation1. That prediction was partly right: the meme's initial wave was intense but short. However, the template proved more resilient than expected, becoming an evergreen format that people pull out when the situation fits3.

Fun Facts

The original 2014 tweet specifically mentioned spaghetti as the thing the car could hold. Nobody knows why spaghetti. It just worked1.

The stock photo and the illustration that became the meme's visual are from two different sources, published a year apart4.

The meme lay dormant for over three years between the original tweet and its Reddit resurgence in late 20174.

@MirGucci's June 2018 tweet is widely credited as the post that married the text format with the illustration, creating the meme as most people know it5.

Derivatives & Variations

Slaps Roof of Car Variations

Different takes on the Slaps Roof of Car format with modified content

(2018)

Slaps Roof of Car Mashups

Combinations of Slaps Roof of Car with other popular memes

(2019)

Slaps Roof of Car Remixes

Updated versions with current events and references

(2019)

Frequently Asked Questions

Slaps Roof of Car

2014Phrasal template / image macrosemi-active

Also known as: Car Salesman Meme · "This Bad Boy Can Fit So Much"

Slaps Roof of Car is a 2018 phrasal meme template featuring a car salesman slapping a vehicle's roof, originating from a 2014 tweet and defined by the catchphrase "this bad boy can fit so much [X] in it.

"Slaps Roof of Car" is a phrasal meme template built around a fictional car salesman pitching an absurd deal. The format follows a simple script: the salesman slaps the roof of a car and declares "this bad boy can fit so much [X] in it," where X is something ridiculous. Originating from a 2014 tweet about spaghetti, the meme exploded across Twitter and Reddit in mid-2018 and became one of that summer's defining formats.

snowclone memes exploitable templates absurdist humor memes delayed virality memes

Overview

The meme features a mock sales pitch between a car dealer and a potential buyer. In its visual form, it shows a drawn or stock-photo-style image of a salesman confidently patting the roof of a car while a customer looks on2. The comedy comes from the salesman's pitch being completely unhinged. Instead of touting fuel efficiency or leather seats, the salesman brags about how much spaghetti, anxiety, or poor life choices the car can hold3.

The format works because it takes something universally familiar, the pushy car salesman stereotype, and stuffs it with the most illogical claim imaginable5. The template is dead simple to remix: swap out the X variable and you've got a new joke. That low barrier to entry made it spread fast and far.

On September 30, 2014, Twitter user @OBiiieeee posted a tweet that read: "Car Salesman: *slaps roof of car* this bad boy can fit so much fucking spaghetti in it"4. The post picked up over 7,700 retweets and 13,000 likes over the next four years4. Less than a month later, on October 28, 2014, Twitter user @Carlitos_N posted one of the earliest variations, writing a version where the salesman gets spooked by a spider hanging off the mirror and quits on the spot4.

The text format floated around Twitter for years without an accompanying image. The stock photograph most associated with the meme, "Car dealer showing vehicle," was published on July 9, 2015 by photographer Katarzyna Bialasiewicz on Dreamstime.com4. The following year, YourMechanic.com commissioned an illustration based on the stock photo for an article titled "How to Effectively Deal With a Car Salesman," published February 26, 20164. That illustration would later become the meme's iconic visual.

Origin & Background

Platform
Twitter (original tweet), Reddit / Twitter (viral spread)
Key People
@OBiiieeee, @MirGucci
Date
2014 (tweet), 2018 (viral explosion)

On September 30, 2014, Twitter user @OBiiieeee posted a tweet that read: "Car Salesman: *slaps roof of car* this bad boy can fit so much fucking spaghetti in it"4. The post picked up over 7,700 retweets and 13,000 likes over the next four years4. Less than a month later, on October 28, 2014, Twitter user @Carlitos_N posted one of the earliest variations, writing a version where the salesman gets spooked by a spider hanging off the mirror and quits on the spot4.

The text format floated around Twitter for years without an accompanying image. The stock photograph most associated with the meme, "Car dealer showing vehicle," was published on July 9, 2015 by photographer Katarzyna Bialasiewicz on Dreamstime.com4. The following year, YourMechanic.com commissioned an illustration based on the stock photo for an article titled "How to Effectively Deal With a Car Salesman," published February 26, 20164. That illustration would later become the meme's iconic visual.

How It Spread

The meme sat dormant for three years after the original tweet. On December 18, 2017, Redditor sweetums1313 reposted @OBiiieeee's tweet to the r/me_irl subreddit, where it earned over 13,300 upvotes and 130 comments4. This brought the format back into circulation but didn't trigger a full breakout yet.

The real explosion came on June 25, 2018, when Twitter user @MirGucci paired the original tweet's text with the YourMechanic illustration of the car salesman and buyer5. That post pulled in over 875 retweets and 2,400 likes, and it was the spark that lit the fuse4. Within 24 hours, Reddit's r/dankmemes was flooded with variations. One of the first, by Redditor Levardio, photoshopped the image to read "*slaps roof of format* this bad boy can fit so many fucking effortless memes in it," a meta-commentary that racked up 13,000 upvotes4.

From there, the meme spread to Instagram and dominated Twitter throughout the summer of 20181. Fandoms worked iconic storylines into the template5. Brands jumped in too. Wendy's, already known for its sharp social media presence, posted its own version1. The brand participation was so aggressive that some declared the meme dead on arrival. Reddit's r/dankmemes community started posting retirement notices for the format5.

By 2019, the meme's peak popularity had faded2. But the template proved durable. Its simple structure, a salesman pitching something absurd, made it easy to revive whenever a new topic fit the format3.

Platforms

TwitterRedditTwitter

Timeline

2019-01-01

Meme still see steady use

2020-01-01

Slaps Roof of Car reached mainstream popularity and media coverage

View on Google Trends

How to Use This Meme

The format typically follows this script:

1

Start with "Car Salesman:" or just "*slaps roof of [object]*"

2

Follow with "this bad boy can fit so much [absurd thing] in it"

3

The object being slapped is usually a car, but people often swap it for anything: a laptop, a country, a human body

4

The "absurd thing" is the punchline. It works best when it's completely unrelated to the object, like "existential dread" or "spaghetti"

Create Your Own

Cultural Impact

The meme tapped into a universal cultural reference: the stereotype of the sleazy, over-eager car salesman5. That made it instantly readable across different audiences. During the summer of 2018, it became one of the most heavily remixed formats on both Twitter and Reddit1.

Brand accounts adopting the format marked a notable moment. Wendy's participation was widely shared, though many meme communities saw corporate involvement as a death knell for the format5. Thrillist compared its staying power unfavorably to "Distracted Boyfriend," predicting it might burn out quickly due to brand oversaturation1. That prediction was partly right: the meme's initial wave was intense but short. However, the template proved more resilient than expected, becoming an evergreen format that people pull out when the situation fits3.

Fun Facts

The original 2014 tweet specifically mentioned spaghetti as the thing the car could hold. Nobody knows why spaghetti. It just worked1.

The stock photo and the illustration that became the meme's visual are from two different sources, published a year apart4.

The meme lay dormant for over three years between the original tweet and its Reddit resurgence in late 20174.

@MirGucci's June 2018 tweet is widely credited as the post that married the text format with the illustration, creating the meme as most people know it5.

Derivatives & Variations

Slaps Roof of Car Variations

Different takes on the Slaps Roof of Car format with modified content

(2018)

Slaps Roof of Car Mashups

Combinations of Slaps Roof of Car with other popular memes

(2019)

Slaps Roof of Car Remixes

Updated versions with current events and references

(2019)

Frequently Asked Questions