
The Lion, The Witch, And The Audacity Of This Bitch
Published October 17, 2026
Facebook meme pages started posting the phrase "The Lion, The Witch, and The Audacity Of This Bitch" in December 2019, before Reddit users welded the line to a still from the 2005 Narnia film the next summer. By late July 2020, the image macro circulated on /r/memes and Facebook comedy pages as a comeback aimed at opinions the poster found absurd.
Overview
"The Lion, The Witch, and The Audacity Of This Bitch" rewrites the title of C. S. Lewis's 1950 fantasy novel "The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe," swapping the wardrobe for a mock-formal insult1. In its common image form, the phrase sits over a promotional still from Andrew Adamson's 2005 film adaptation, often showing a disapproving face from one of the Pevensie siblings. Posters apply it to screenshots, quote tweets or headlines they consider ridiculous, with the dignified Narnia cadence setting up the punchline reveal in the last three words.
Earlier text-only versions worked the same way without the picture, with Facebook pages posting the phrase over colored backgrounds2. Once Reddit users attached the Narnia screenshot in July 2020, that visual became the dominant form.
Gallery
Origin & Background
On December 12, 2019, Facebook page The Eternal Dreamers posted the phrase as a plain-text status, the earliest known public appearance2. On December 15, meme page Meme'N uploaded the same line over a different background, and the post built up more than 28,000 shares across the following eleven months3. Other Facebook comedy accounts copied the status format through December and January4.
How It Spread
Timeline
2019-12-12
Facebook page The Eternal Dreamers posts the phrase as a plain-text status, the earliest known public use.
2019-12-15
Meme page Meme'N reposts the line over a different background, drawing more than 28,000 shares over the following months.
2020-07-19
Redditor Flaffelll posts the phrase as an image macro over a still from the 2005 Narnia film to /r/rareinsults.
2020-07-19
Redditor RealChronicle posts another image-macro version to /r/memes, which drew heavy upvotes over the following months.
2020-07-20
Redditor yeborne uploads an HD template of the Narnia image to /r/MemeTemplatesOfficial, and Facebook page Launceston Memes shares its own version.
How to Use This Meme
Users typically pair the phrase with the Narnia promotional still as a caption on something they find outrageous, often a screenshot of a quote or news headline. A common convention places the full title at the top of the image so the first words read like the straight book title before the insult lands.
Frequently Asked Questions
References (8)
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