# The Five Stages Of Grief > The Five Stages of Grief is a 2007 image-macro meme applying Elisabeth Kübler-Ross's grief-model stages—denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance—to absurd or everyday situations. The Five Stages of Grief is an image macro and exploitable template series that humorously applies psychiatrist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross's grief model (denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance) to trivial or absurd situations. The meme format took shape online in 2007 with early DeviantArt parodies and went viral through a series of increasingly creative remixes, from political satire to a wildly popular tweet about imitation butter brands in 2017. ## Origin Swiss psychiatrist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross first outlined the five stages of grief in her 1969 book *On Death and Dying*, drawing on her work with terminally ill patients[4]. The stages (denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance) became deeply embedded in popular culture despite criticism from academics who noted a lack of empirical support[5]. Later research suggested that bereaved people typically accept a death almost immediately rather than progressing through neat stages[1]. The meme version kicked off on July 2, 2007, when DeviantArt user whitegryphon uploaded an MS Paint comic titled "5 Stages of Grief," one of the earliest known images parodying the Kübler-Ross model online[5]. The comic was rough around the edges, described by the artist as Wacom tablet practice, but it established the basic format of illustrating each stage with exaggerated characters[3]. - **Platform:** DeviantArt (earliest parodies), Twitter / Reddit (viral spread) - **Creator:** whitegryphon (earliest known online parody), Jabnormalities (exploitable template), @daisyowl (viral butter tweet) - **Date:** 2007 ## Overview The Five Stages of Grief meme takes the well-known psychological framework of denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance and maps it onto situations that are decidedly not life-threatening. The format typically uses five labeled panels or images, each corresponding to a stage, applied to everything from losing a video game to dealing with a bad haircut. The comedy comes from the gap between the original model's gravity and whatever petty situation the meme creator chooses to grieve over. The Kübler-Ross model was originally developed to describe the emotional process of terminally ill patients, not the bereaved or mildly inconvenienced[1]. Pop culture flattened the nuance long before the internet got hold of it, treating the five stages as a neat, sequential checklist that applies to all forms of loss[4]. Meme creators leaned into that oversimplification hard, often cycling through all five stages in a single image or cramming them into a few seconds of comedy. ## How It Spread The concept picked up traction slowly at first. On August 24, 2010, a dedicated page for "Five Stages of Grief" was created on TV Tropes, cataloging its appearances across anime, film, and television[1]. The page documented how pop culture typically plays the stages for laughs, with characters speed-running through all five "within ten seconds of each other"[1]. On March 28, 2012, DeviantArt user Jabnormalities posted an exploitable comic template titled "5 Stages of Grief Meme"[2]. The template broke down each stage with clear instructions: denial ("still in shock"), anger ("reality starts to sink in"), bargaining ("trying to find a way out"), depression ("all hope is lost"), and acceptance ("they will learn to live with what has happened")[2]. This template spawned numerous fan iterations on DeviantArt over the following years, with artists applying the format to their own characters[5]. The format jumped to political humor on February 4, 2016, when Redditor FutureFormerRedditor posted a Trump-themed version titled "5 Stages of Trump" to r/The_Donald[5]. In December 2016, a Tumblr user assembled an image showing *The Daily Show* host Trevor Noah appearing to cycle through the five stages during an interview with conservative commentator Tomi Lahren[5]. The meme's biggest single viral moment came on August 20, 2017, when Twitter user @daisyowl posted a version featuring five different brands of imitation butter, each matched to a grief stage[5]. The tweet picked up over 52,300 likes and 25,300 retweets within 24 hours[5]. That same evening, Redditor phasma11 reposted the image to r/me_irl, where it pulled in more than 20,800 points, and the next day it hit r/MemeEconomy via Redditor Ryanite with over 7,200 points[5]. ## How to Use The Five Stages of Grief meme is flexible enough to fit almost any template. The most common approach involves picking a frustrating or absurd situation and mapping five reactions onto the stages: 1. **Pick your "loss"** — anything from a dropped ice cream cone to a canceled TV show to a software update. 2. **Find or create five images** that represent denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance in the context of your chosen situation. 3. **Label each image** with the corresponding stage name. The humor often comes from the images being wildly disproportionate to real grief. 4. **Optional: use a single subject** progressing through the stages, like the Trevor Noah interview format, or use five separate objects that coincidentally match the emotional arc, like the butter brands. ## Cultural Impact The Five Stages of Grief meme tapped into something deeper than just internet humor. The Michigan Daily published an essay applying the framework to social media behavior during real tragedies, mapping how online communities cycle through misinformation (denial), activist anger, conscious consumption (bargaining), doomscrolling (depression), and eventually moving on (acceptance)[4]. The essay noted that social media algorithms exploit the anger stage specifically, prioritizing rage-fueled content because it drives engagement[4]. The framework's pop culture presence extends well beyond memes. TV Tropes' extensive catalog documents its use across dozens of anime, TV series, and films[1]. Horror films like *The Babadook* (2014) built entire narratives around grief's stages, with director Jennifer Kent exploring parenting and "the fear of going mad" through the lens of unresolved loss[6]. The Kübler-Ross model's simplicity makes it irresistible to storytellers and meme creators alike, even as psychologists repeatedly point out its limitations. ## Fun Facts - Kübler-Ross developed the model by working with dying patients, not bereaved family members. The extension to all forms of grief happened in pop culture, not in her original research[1]. - The TV Tropes page notes that when played for laughs in fiction, characters typically blow through all five stages "within ten seconds"[1]. - Research suggests that most stable people accept a death within seconds and rarely engage in denial at all, making the meme's exaggerated progression even funnier by contrast[1]. - The @daisyowl butter tweet crossed platforms three times in 24 hours: Twitter to r/me_irl to r/MemeEconomy, picking up over 80,000 combined engagement points[5]. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is the Five Stages of Grief meme? It's an image macro series that takes the Kübler-Ross model of grief (denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance) and applies it to humorous or trivial situations using labeled images or panels[5]. ### Where did the Five Stages of Grief meme come from? The earliest known online parody was posted by DeviantArt user whitegryphon on July 2, 2007, as an MS Paint comic[5]. The exploitable template version came from DeviantArt user Jabnormalities in 2012[2]. ### What does the Five Stages of Grief meme mean? It satirizes the tendency to overdramatize minor inconveniences by framing them through a model designed for terminal illness. The joke is the absurd mismatch between the gravity of the framework and whatever's being "grieved"[1]. ### How do you use the Five Stages of Grief meme? Pick a situation, find five images or descriptions that map onto each stage, and label them accordingly. The format works for comics, photo sets, or text posts[2]. ### Is the Five Stages of Grief meme still popular? The format is a classic that people return to whenever a situation calls for exaggerated emotional processing. Its biggest viral peak was in 2017 with the butter brands tweet[5]. ### Who created the exploitable template version? DeviantArt user Jabnormalities posted the widely-used template on March 28, 2012, complete with instructions for each stage[2]. ### Is the Kübler-Ross model actually accurate? Academics have criticized it for lacking empirical evidence. Later research found that bereaved people often skip denial entirely, and the stages don't necessarily occur in order[1]. ### What was the most viral Five Stages of Grief meme? The @daisyowl butter brands tweet from August 20, 2017, which earned over 52,300 likes and 25,300 retweets in a single day before spreading to Reddit[5]. ### How did the meme get used in politics? A Trump-themed version appeared on r/The_Donald in February 2016, and a Tumblr post matched Trevor Noah's facial expressions during a Tomi Lahren interview to the five stages in December 2016[5]. ### What's the connection between the Five Stages of Grief and social media behavior? The Michigan Daily published an analysis mapping the grief stages onto how online communities process real-world tragedies, from initial denial and misinformation through activist anger to eventual acceptance as the news cycle moves on[4]. ## References 1. [Five Stages of Grief - TV Tropes]() 2. [5 Stages of Grief Meme by Jabnormalities on DeviantArt]() 3. [5 Stages of Grief by whitegryphon on DeviantArt]() 4. [The Five Stages of Grief - Know Your Meme]() 5. [The Babadook]() 6. [The five stages of online grief in context of tragedy]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/the-five-stages-of-grief Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library