# The Man Behind The Slaughter > The Man Behind The Slaughter is a 2019 meme based on The Living Tombstone's 2014 FNAF song lyric, featuring purple-tinted ironic edits and webcomic recaptions centered on the villain William Afton. "The Man Behind the Slaughter" is a meme built around a lyric from The Living Tombstone's 2014 Five Nights at Freddy's fan song "It's Been So Long." The phrase describes the FNAF villain William Afton, and starting in late 2019, it became the basis for ironic edits, purple-tinted images, and recaptioned webcomics that spread across iFunny, Instagram, and Twitter through early 2020. ## Origin On December 4th, 2014, Israeli musician The Living Tombstone uploaded "It's Been So Long" to YouTube[4]. The track was based on the plot of Five Nights at Freddy's 2 and featured a chorus describing the game's antagonist William Afton as "the man behind the slaughter." The song picked up over 92 million views across the next six years[4]. For five years, the song lived entirely within FNAF fan circles as a straightforward fan tribute. That changed on December 31st, 2019, when Instagram user hd_chungles posted a recaptioned webcomic edit built around the song's lyrics[4]. The post pulled in over 173,000 views and 20,000 likes within three months, creating the first recognizable version of the meme format[4]. - **Platform:** YouTube (source song), Instagram (meme format) - **Creator:** The Living Tombstone (source song), hd_chungles (first known meme edit) - **Date:** 2019 ## Overview The Man Behind the Slaughter meme takes a single lyric from a Five Nights at Freddy's fan song and turns it into a punchline. The source material is "It's Been So Long" by The Living Tombstone, a track written from the perspective of a mother grieving her murdered child[4]. The chorus names William Afton, the FNAF franchise's main villain (also called Purple Guy), as "the man behind the slaughter." In meme form, people apply that phrase to basically anything. The most common approach involves taking a random image, slapping a purple filter over it, and captioning it with the lyric[6]. Other formats include replacing webcomic dialogue with the song's lyrics, overlaying the phrase on unrelated GIFs, and playing the song's chorus over absurd video clips[4]. The humor works because the phrase carries so much dramatic weight from the original song, and applying it to something mundane or ridiculous creates instant comedy through the contrast[1]. The meme also draws on William Afton's distinctive purple sprite from the games. Purple became such a strong visual shorthand that simply tinting anything purple can invoke the reference without any text at all[2]. ## How It Spread The format caught on fast in January 2020. Reposts hit Twitter, Instagram, and iFunny within days of the original[4]. On January 8th, 2020, YouTuber The Acid Muskitears uploaded another recaptioned webcomic edit that reached over 342,000 views in three months[4]. Six days later on January 14th, iFunny user CoasterCrusader posted a Barnacle Boy's Sulfur Vision edit that mixed SpongeBob's purple-tinted visual gag with the FNAF reference[4]. The real viral breakout came in March 2020, right as COVID-19 lockdowns pushed internet activity through the roof. On March 7th, iFunny user TheEliteDidNothingWrong posted a GIF caption that earned over 430 smiles in three weeks[4]. Five days later, iFunny user RemingtonV2 created a PogChamp crossover edit that hit over 3,000 smiles in two weeks[3]. Comments on these posts ranged from genuine appreciation to ironic distance, with one user writing "Can't believe there was a time that I listened to this unironically"[1]. The meme's formula was dead simple to replicate: take anything, color it purple, add the phrase. That low barrier to entry helped it spread rapidly through FNAF fan communities and shitposting circles alike[6]. By mid-2020, the phrase was recognizable enough that people started noting the meme's own oversaturation. One iFunny comment asked, "Is anyone else starting to think that purple guy memes are becoming too popular and that is starting to become less funny?"[6]. Urban Dictionary entries for the phrase consist almost entirely of the full "It's Been So Long" lyrics pasted verbatim, with definitions like "someone who murdered a bunch of little kids" and "He's also purple"[5]. ## How to Use The Man Behind the Slaughter meme typically takes one of a few forms: 1. **Purple filter edit:** Take any image or video of a person or character, apply a purple color filter, and caption it with "the man behind the slaughter" or play the song's chorus over it. 2. **Webcomic recaption:** Replace dialogue in an existing webcomic with lyrics from "It's Been So Long," building toward the chorus line as the punchline. 3. **Reaction/reveal format:** Set up a mundane or absurd scenario, then reveal someone as "the man behind the slaughter" as the payoff. 4. **GIF captions:** Overlay the phrase on unrelated GIFs for ironic effect, often using dramatic or serious source material[4]. ## Cultural Impact The meme's biggest effect was pulling The Living Tombstone's "It's Been So Long" back into the spotlight years after its original release. The song was already a hit with FNAF fans at 92 million views, but the 2020 meme wave introduced it to audiences who had never touched the games[4]. The ironic recontextualization turned a sincere fan tribute into internet-wide comedy material. The meme's March 2020 surge aligned with early pandemic lockdowns, when meme production spiked across every platform. This timing gave the format extra fuel and helped it break out of FNAF-specific communities into broader shitposting culture[1]. It also contributed to a wider pattern of FNAF memes going mainstream, alongside formats like "Was That the Bite of '87?" and other lore-based references. ## Fun Facts - The song sat completely untouched by meme culture for five full years between its 2014 release and the first meme edit on December 31st, 2019[4]. - William Afton's purple in-game sprite is so iconic that simply coloring anything purple can invoke the meme without any text at all[2]. - iFunny played an unusually central role in this meme's spread, serving as one of the primary platforms alongside Instagram and Twitter during the March 2020 viral peak[4]. - One Urban Dictionary definition describes the man behind the slaughter simply as "Someone who murdered a bunch of little kids. He's also purple"[5]. - Comments on popular posts show the FNAF fandom's self-awareness, with users noting they once listened to the song "unironically" before it became a meme[1]. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is The Man Behind the Slaughter? It's a meme based on the lyric "the man behind the slaughter" from The Living Tombstone's "It's Been So Long," a Five Nights at Freddy's fan song from 2014. People use the phrase in ironic edits and image macros[4]. ### Where did The Man Behind the Slaughter come from? The lyric originated in a December 2014 YouTube song by The Living Tombstone[4]. The meme format started on December 31st, 2019, when Instagram user hd_chungles posted a webcomic edit using the lyrics[4]. ### What does The Man Behind the Slaughter mean? In FNAF lore, it describes William Afton, the serial killer behind the murders that drive the game's story[5]. In meme form, it's applied ironically to random people or characters for comedic effect. ### How do you use The Man Behind the Slaughter meme? The most common method is to take an image, apply a purple filter, and add the caption "the man behind the slaughter." You can also play the song over unrelated videos or replace webcomic dialogue with the lyrics[4]. ### Is The Man Behind the Slaughter still popular? The meme peaked in early-to-mid 2020 during its viral spread across iFunny, Instagram, and Twitter[4]. It still circulates in FNAF fan communities and shitposting groups, though at lower frequency than its peak. ### Why is the meme associated with the color purple? William Afton's in-game sprite in the Five Nights at Freddy's series is entirely purple, earning him the nickname "Purple Guy"[2]. This makes purple a visual shorthand for both the character and the meme. ### Who is The Living Tombstone? The Living Tombstone is an Israeli musician who created "It's Been So Long" in 2014, the FNAF fan song containing the lyric that became the meme. The video accumulated over 92 million YouTube views[4]. ### Why did it take five years for the meme to start? The song was popular with FNAF fans from 2014, but ironic meme culture didn't pick up the specific lyric as a format until late 2019 when Instagram user hd_chungles created the first known meme edit[4]. ### What role did iFunny play in the meme's spread? iFunny was one of the primary platforms for the meme's viral March 2020 breakout, with users like CoasterCrusader, TheEliteDidNothingWrong, and RemingtonV2 creating popular edits that received thousands of engagements[3]. ### Did the meme get oversaturated? Yes. By mid-2020, even fans on iFunny were commenting that "purple guy memes are becoming too popular and starting to become less funny"[6]. ## References 1. [Video memes gjzhRZKL7 by CoasterRica: 30 comments - iFunny]() 2. [Picture memes mcZwuQTL7 by CoasterRica: 22 comments - iFunny]() 3. [Video memes EMDvX3qU7 by RemingtonV2_2014: 27 comments - iFunny]() 4. [The Man Behind the Slaughter - Know Your Meme]() 5. [Ralph Breaks the Internet (soundtrack)]() 6. [The Man Behind the Slaughter - Urban Dictionary]() 7. [When I see the man behind the slaughter - iFunny]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/the-man-behind-the-slaughter Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library