Arthur cartoon pool scene meme reading 'This... but god help me, the ass was fat.'

The Ass Was Fat

2012image macroclassic

Published October 20, 2026

'The Ass Was Fat / Arthur Sees A Fat Ass' began with a disturbing 4chan request on February 7, 2012, when an anonymous poster asked for pornographic drawings of characters from the PBS children's show Arthur and repeatedly justified his tastes with the phrase. One day later a screencap of the thread hit r/WTF, and Quickmeme users made an image macro series out of the Arthur Read character peeking around a doorway, wide-eyed.

image macro memes catchphrase memes 4chan memes childrens media memes hornyposting memes

Overview

Each macro in the series combines a shot of Arthur Read mid-tiptoe, head poking into a room, with a two-line caption1. The top line describes some unflattering trait of an unseen person, and the bottom line absolves the character's gawking with 'but the ass was fat.' Comic effect comes from the contrast between a wholesome children's show character and the dismissive horny one-liner being put in his mouth1.

Later edits omit Arthur entirely and apply the phrase as a reaction caption on photographs of other subjects, where naming a flaw followed by 'but the ass was fat' does the comedic work on its own3. Quickmeme hosts a page cataloguing dozens of these variants under the 'Arthur Sees A Fat Ass' label2.

Origin & Background

Platform
4chan (origin), Reddit and Quickmeme (viral spread)
Date
2012

On February 7, 2012, an anonymous user on 4chan started a thread asking for pornographic drawings of Arthur Read and Sue Ellen Armstrong from the PBS Kids series Arthur3. In the thread, the poster described Sue Ellen and another character named Molly in graphic sexual detail, returning again and again to the phrase 'the ass was fat' as justification for his fixation1. Reactions split between disgusted users reading the request as sincere and others taking it as a joke, and the phrase was echoed back by other posters in the same thread1. The first Arthur peeking-around-the-corner image macros were made inside that thread before it was archived3.

How It Spread

On February 8, 2012, Redditor Zanhana posted a screencap of the 4chan thread to r/WTF under the title 'the ass was fat [xpost from r/4chan],' where it collected 659 upvotes and an overall score of 3991. Other Reddit users submitted additional screencaps of the thread to r/WTF around that same window4.

Quickmeme indexed the format under the label 'Arthur Sees A Fat Ass,' with several variations of the image macro appearing on its ranking pages2. Beyond strict Arthur edits, the 'but the ass was fat' catchphrase also attached itself to non-Arthur reaction photos, where the two-line insult-then-excuse structure carried the joke on its own2.

Timeline

2012-02-07

An anonymous 4chan poster opens a thread requesting pornographic drawings of Arthur characters and repeatedly uses 'the ass was fat' to justify his fixation; the first Arthur image macros are made inside that thread.

2012-02-08

Redditor Zanhana crossposts a screencap of the 4chan thread to r/WTF, where it collects 659 upvotes and a score of 399.

2012-02-08

Quickmeme indexes the format under 'Arthur Sees A Fat Ass,' hosting multiple variations of the image macro.

How to Use This Meme

Posts in the format typically combine the still of Arthur peering around a doorway with a two-line caption. The first line names some unattractive or odd trait of a hypothetical woman, and the second line concedes 'but the ass was fat' as the overriding factor2.

Frequently Asked Questions