The Missile Knows Where It Is

1997Copypasta / audio memeclassic

Also known as: The Missile Copypasta · Missile Guidance for Dummies

The Missile Knows Where It Is is a 1997 Air Force copypasta featuring deliberately circular logic about missile navigation, which evolved into an audio meme and achieved viral resurgence on Twitch in 2019.

"The Missile Knows Where It Is" is a copypasta and audio meme based on a deliberately circular explanation of missile guidance systems, originally printed in a 1997 Air Force newsletter1. The passage describes how a missile navigates by "subtracting where it is from where it isn't," looping through increasingly confusing logic that sounds technical but reads like a parody of bureaucratic jargon. First shared online around 2003, it gained traction through YouTube uploads and musical remixes before a major resurgence on Twitch in 20193.

copypasta memesaudio memesabsurdist humor memestech humor memesearly internet memes

Overview

The meme centers on a passage that attempts to explain how a missile's guidance system works, but does so in the most circular, redundant way imaginable. The key lines read:

> "The missile knows where it is at all times. It knows this because it knows where it isn't. By subtracting where it is from where it isn't, or where it isn't from where it is, whichever is greater, it obtains a difference, or deviation."

The text spirals deeper into self-referential logic from there, with phrases like "arriving at a position where it wasn't, but is now" that make the reader feel like they're trapped in a feedback loop3. An accompanying audio recording features a deadpan male voice reading the passage with complete seriousness, which only makes it funnier. The humor comes from the tension between the official, authoritative tone and the fact that the explanation explains absolutely nothing to anyone who doesn't already understand inertial navigation1.

The text first appeared in the December 1997 issue of the Association of Air Force Missileers newsletter, on page 5, under the title "GLCM GUIDANCE SYSTEM"2. It was submitted by Colonel (Ret) George Grill, who had worked with General Dynamics at Greenham Common Air Base in England1. The newsletter prefaced the text with the note that "it may not be the first time you have seen this," suggesting the joke had already been circulating within military circles before its print publication1.

The passage describes the guidance system of the BGM-109G Ground Launched Cruise Missile (GLCM), which used a combination of inertial navigation and terrain contour mapping, known as TERCOM1. The original newsletter text ends with a single word: "Simple." This punchline strongly suggests the whole thing was written as an inside joke among guidance, navigation, and control (GNC) engineers poking fun at how impenetrable their field sounds to outsiders1.

Origin & Background

Platform
Association of Air Force Missileers newsletter (source text), University of Wyoming website (first known online posting)
Key People
Colonel George Grill, Unknown
Date
1997

The text first appeared in the December 1997 issue of the Association of Air Force Missileers newsletter, on page 5, under the title "GLCM GUIDANCE SYSTEM". It was submitted by Colonel (Ret) George Grill, who had worked with General Dynamics at Greenham Common Air Base in England. The newsletter prefaced the text with the note that "it may not be the first time you have seen this," suggesting the joke had already been circulating within military circles before its print publication.

The passage describes the guidance system of the BGM-109G Ground Launched Cruise Missile (GLCM), which used a combination of inertial navigation and terrain contour mapping, known as TERCOM. The original newsletter text ends with a single word: "Simple." This punchline strongly suggests the whole thing was written as an inside joke among guidance, navigation, and control (GNC) engineers poking fun at how impenetrable their field sounds to outsiders.

How It Spread

The earliest known online appearance dates to 2003, when a now-defunct page on the University of Wyoming website titled "Missile Guidance for Dummies" linked to both the newsletter PDF and an audio recording of the passage being read aloud.

The meme's first YouTube upload came in 2007. A user named Inimicu posted "The missile knows where it is (portfolio length)," which showed a student apparently listening to the audio for a school project. The raw audio clip was uploaded to YouTube on August 11, 2012, by Jeff7181, where it picked up over 360,000 views.

On September 4, 2016, the full text was posted to Reddit's r/copypasta subreddit, giving it new life as a text-based meme. This sparked a wave of musical remixes on 4chan and YouTube. The best-known version sets the audio over the instrumental from Dr. Dre's "Still D.R.E." A remix by YouTuber Krasniye, uploaded March 12, 2017, pulled in 112,000 views.

The meme saw its biggest resurgence starting in early 2019 through Twitch media-sharing segments. Various remixes appeared repeatedly on Asmongold's livestream in January 2019, introducing the copypasta to a massive new audience of gaming and streaming fans.

Media

How to Use This Meme

The Missile copypasta works in a few common ways:

As copypasta: Drop the full text (or a recognizable excerpt like "The missile knows where it is at all times. It knows this because it knows where it isn't.") into comment sections, Discord servers, or chat when someone asks for an overly simple explanation and you want to give them the opposite. It's especially popular as a response to "explain X simply" prompts.

As a remix: Take the audio clip and layer it over a beat or instrumental track. The deadpan delivery pairs well with hard-hitting instrumentals, creating a comedic contrast. The "Still D.R.E." version set the template.

As a reference: Quote or paraphrase the circular logic structure when mocking bureaucratic language, overly technical documentation, or any explanation that manages to say nothing while sounding authoritative.

On Twitch: Submit remixes through media-sharing features on livestreams. The meme typically gets big reactions from both streamers and chat.

Cultural Impact

Beyond its life as an internet joke, the Missile copypasta sparked genuine discussion about whether the text is technically accurate. On Skeptics Stack Exchange, GNC professionals weighed in, confirming that the passage is "kinda-sorta accurate" in a "ridiculously general sense" as a description of how inertial guidance drift correction works. The GLCM's actual guidance combined inertial navigation (using gyroscopes and accelerometers to track movement from a known starting point) with TERCOM altitude mapping to correct for accumulated drift.

One GNC expert noted that the deliberately convoluted language is how guidance engineers "talk about how 'simple' their job is to outsiders while at the same time poking fun at outsiders," adding that "ten years is not enough time to develop expertise in this field". The fact that the joke contains a kernel of real engineering truth is part of what keeps people coming back to it. It sits in the uncanny valley between genuine explanation and total nonsense.

Fun Facts

The newsletter text was submitted by a retired Colonel who worked at Greenham Common, a UK base best known for women's peace camps protesting nuclear missiles in the 1980s.

The passage describes the BGM-109G GLCM, a now-decommissioned nuclear cruise missile that was deployed in Europe during the Cold War.

The original newsletter note suggests the joke predates its 1997 print publication, meaning it may have been circulating among defense contractors and military personnel for years before anyone put it on paper.

GNC (Guidance, Navigation, and Control) is considered one of the most highly protected and specialized fields in aerospace engineering, which makes the existence of this joke even funnier.

Derivatives & Variations

"Still D.R.E." remix:

The most widely circulated version, setting the missile audio over Dr. Dre's instrumental. Multiple versions exist on YouTube, with Krasniye's 2017 upload among the most viewed[3].

Twitch media-share remixes:

Various musical remixes created specifically for Twitch stream media-sharing segments, which drove the 2019 resurgence[3].

Portfolio-length student video:

Inimicu's 2007 video showing a student listening to the audio for a school assignment, the first known YouTube upload of the meme[3].

Frequently Asked Questions

The Missile Knows Where It Is

1997Copypasta / audio memeclassic

Also known as: The Missile Copypasta · Missile Guidance for Dummies

The Missile Knows Where It Is is a 1997 Air Force copypasta featuring deliberately circular logic about missile navigation, which evolved into an audio meme and achieved viral resurgence on Twitch in 2019.

"The Missile Knows Where It Is" is a copypasta and audio meme based on a deliberately circular explanation of missile guidance systems, originally printed in a 1997 Air Force newsletter. The passage describes how a missile navigates by "subtracting where it is from where it isn't," looping through increasingly confusing logic that sounds technical but reads like a parody of bureaucratic jargon. First shared online around 2003, it gained traction through YouTube uploads and musical remixes before a major resurgence on Twitch in 2019.

copypasta memes audio memes absurdist humor memes tech humor memes early internet memes

Overview

The meme centers on a passage that attempts to explain how a missile's guidance system works, but does so in the most circular, redundant way imaginable. The key lines read:

> "The missile knows where it is at all times. It knows this because it knows where it isn't. By subtracting where it is from where it isn't, or where it isn't from where it is, whichever is greater, it obtains a difference, or deviation."

The text spirals deeper into self-referential logic from there, with phrases like "arriving at a position where it wasn't, but is now" that make the reader feel like they're trapped in a feedback loop. An accompanying audio recording features a deadpan male voice reading the passage with complete seriousness, which only makes it funnier. The humor comes from the tension between the official, authoritative tone and the fact that the explanation explains absolutely nothing to anyone who doesn't already understand inertial navigation.

The text first appeared in the December 1997 issue of the Association of Air Force Missileers newsletter, on page 5, under the title "GLCM GUIDANCE SYSTEM". It was submitted by Colonel (Ret) George Grill, who had worked with General Dynamics at Greenham Common Air Base in England. The newsletter prefaced the text with the note that "it may not be the first time you have seen this," suggesting the joke had already been circulating within military circles before its print publication.

The passage describes the guidance system of the BGM-109G Ground Launched Cruise Missile (GLCM), which used a combination of inertial navigation and terrain contour mapping, known as TERCOM. The original newsletter text ends with a single word: "Simple." This punchline strongly suggests the whole thing was written as an inside joke among guidance, navigation, and control (GNC) engineers poking fun at how impenetrable their field sounds to outsiders.

Origin & Background

Platform
Association of Air Force Missileers newsletter (source text), University of Wyoming website (first known online posting)
Key People
Colonel George Grill, Unknown
Date
1997

The text first appeared in the December 1997 issue of the Association of Air Force Missileers newsletter, on page 5, under the title "GLCM GUIDANCE SYSTEM". It was submitted by Colonel (Ret) George Grill, who had worked with General Dynamics at Greenham Common Air Base in England. The newsletter prefaced the text with the note that "it may not be the first time you have seen this," suggesting the joke had already been circulating within military circles before its print publication.

The passage describes the guidance system of the BGM-109G Ground Launched Cruise Missile (GLCM), which used a combination of inertial navigation and terrain contour mapping, known as TERCOM. The original newsletter text ends with a single word: "Simple." This punchline strongly suggests the whole thing was written as an inside joke among guidance, navigation, and control (GNC) engineers poking fun at how impenetrable their field sounds to outsiders.

How It Spread

The earliest known online appearance dates to 2003, when a now-defunct page on the University of Wyoming website titled "Missile Guidance for Dummies" linked to both the newsletter PDF and an audio recording of the passage being read aloud.

The meme's first YouTube upload came in 2007. A user named Inimicu posted "The missile knows where it is (portfolio length)," which showed a student apparently listening to the audio for a school project. The raw audio clip was uploaded to YouTube on August 11, 2012, by Jeff7181, where it picked up over 360,000 views.

On September 4, 2016, the full text was posted to Reddit's r/copypasta subreddit, giving it new life as a text-based meme. This sparked a wave of musical remixes on 4chan and YouTube. The best-known version sets the audio over the instrumental from Dr. Dre's "Still D.R.E." A remix by YouTuber Krasniye, uploaded March 12, 2017, pulled in 112,000 views.

The meme saw its biggest resurgence starting in early 2019 through Twitch media-sharing segments. Various remixes appeared repeatedly on Asmongold's livestream in January 2019, introducing the copypasta to a massive new audience of gaming and streaming fans.

Media

How to Use This Meme

The Missile copypasta works in a few common ways:

As copypasta: Drop the full text (or a recognizable excerpt like "The missile knows where it is at all times. It knows this because it knows where it isn't.") into comment sections, Discord servers, or chat when someone asks for an overly simple explanation and you want to give them the opposite. It's especially popular as a response to "explain X simply" prompts.

As a remix: Take the audio clip and layer it over a beat or instrumental track. The deadpan delivery pairs well with hard-hitting instrumentals, creating a comedic contrast. The "Still D.R.E." version set the template.

As a reference: Quote or paraphrase the circular logic structure when mocking bureaucratic language, overly technical documentation, or any explanation that manages to say nothing while sounding authoritative.

On Twitch: Submit remixes through media-sharing features on livestreams. The meme typically gets big reactions from both streamers and chat.

Cultural Impact

Beyond its life as an internet joke, the Missile copypasta sparked genuine discussion about whether the text is technically accurate. On Skeptics Stack Exchange, GNC professionals weighed in, confirming that the passage is "kinda-sorta accurate" in a "ridiculously general sense" as a description of how inertial guidance drift correction works. The GLCM's actual guidance combined inertial navigation (using gyroscopes and accelerometers to track movement from a known starting point) with TERCOM altitude mapping to correct for accumulated drift.

One GNC expert noted that the deliberately convoluted language is how guidance engineers "talk about how 'simple' their job is to outsiders while at the same time poking fun at outsiders," adding that "ten years is not enough time to develop expertise in this field". The fact that the joke contains a kernel of real engineering truth is part of what keeps people coming back to it. It sits in the uncanny valley between genuine explanation and total nonsense.

Fun Facts

The newsletter text was submitted by a retired Colonel who worked at Greenham Common, a UK base best known for women's peace camps protesting nuclear missiles in the 1980s.

The passage describes the BGM-109G GLCM, a now-decommissioned nuclear cruise missile that was deployed in Europe during the Cold War.

The original newsletter note suggests the joke predates its 1997 print publication, meaning it may have been circulating among defense contractors and military personnel for years before anyone put it on paper.

GNC (Guidance, Navigation, and Control) is considered one of the most highly protected and specialized fields in aerospace engineering, which makes the existence of this joke even funnier.

Derivatives & Variations

"Still D.R.E." remix:

The most widely circulated version, setting the missile audio over Dr. Dre's instrumental. Multiple versions exist on YouTube, with Krasniye's 2017 upload among the most viewed[3].

Twitch media-share remixes:

Various musical remixes created specifically for Twitch stream media-sharing segments, which drove the 2019 resurgence[3].

Portfolio-length student video:

Inimicu's 2007 video showing a student listening to the audio for a school assignment, the first known YouTube upload of the meme[3].

Frequently Asked Questions