# There Are No Accidents
In September 2017, Reddit user King_of_Connaught turned a still of Master Oogway from Kung Fu Panda into a three-panel exploitable where the tortoise's line 'There are no accidents' bookends a chosen target, with 'no' scratched out in the final frame. The r/dankmemes post picked up over 1,200 upvotes, and a day later a Hitler-featuring variant on r/MemeEconomy carried the template beyond its home subreddit. By late September 2017, face swaps and reworked punchlines had turned the template into a dankmemes staple.
## Origin
The still of Master Oogway comes from Kung Fu Panda, DreamWorks Animation's 2008 feature, where the tortoise delivers 'There are no accidents' as a koan to Shifu. The exact cropped frame first appeared online on June 4, 2014, in a Zillion Designs blog post that used it to illustrate a graphic-design article, not as a joke[4]. A YouTube clip uploaded by user 2Cor12.9 on November 7, 2013, had already paired the same frame with the quote[5].
On September 5, 2017, Redditor King_of_Connaught posted the first three-panel version to r/dankmemes under the title 'the shitpost to end all shitposts,' using 'anime' as the middle-panel target and crossing out 'no' in the final Oogway panel[1]. The post picked up more than 1,200 points at a 92% upvote rate and set the template others copied[1].
- **Platform:** Reddit (r/dankmemes, viral spread on r/MemeEconomy)
- **Creator:** King_of_Connaught
- **Date:** 2017
## Overview
Three identical crops of Master Oogway from Kung Fu Panda sit in panels one and three, each carrying his line 'There are no accidents'[1]. The middle panel holds whatever the poster wants to label an accident, from fandoms to historical figures, and the final copy crosses out 'no' so Oogway reverses his own wisdom[1]. That bait-and-switch structure made the image an exploitable rather than a one-liner.
Tone leans edgy, since the humor rides entirely on what sits in the middle slot. Early r/dankmemes entries went with soft targets like 'anime,' but within a day users were slotting in Adolf Hitler and other shock picks to push the reversal further[2]. The visual grammar is rigid: same tortoise shot, same wording, same cross-out, so riffs stay recognizable even when the subject is obscure[3].
## How to Use
A typical post follows the rigid three-panel structure: Oogway with 'There are no accidents,' then the subject the poster wants to call an accident, then Oogway again with 'no' struck through. Picking a target that genuinely reads as a mistake (a baby photo, a misspelled word) or an obviously deliberate one (a dictator, a franchise) decides whether the gag lands as absurd or edgy. Common variations swap Oogway's face for another character in the third panel, or rewrite his line so the final judgment flips the other way[1].
## Frequently Asked Questions
### What is There Are No Accidents?
It is a three-panel exploitable built from a still of Master Oogway in Kung Fu Panda, where his quote 'There are no accidents' bookends a chosen subject and 'no' is crossed out in the final panel so the turtle reverses himself[1].
### Where did There Are No Accidents come from?
Redditor King_of_Connaught posted the first three-panel version to r/dankmemes on September 5, 2017, using 'anime' as the middle-panel target[1].
### What does There Are No Accidents mean?
The joke is a reversal: Oogway's koan from Kung Fu Panda is set up as wisdom in panel one, applied to a specific target in panel two, then undone in panel three when 'no' is scratched out, labeling the target an accident after all[3].
### How do you use There Are No Accidents?
Posters put Oogway's line in the first and third panels, slot a target into the middle, and cross out 'no' in the final copy, sometimes swapping Oogway's face or rewriting the line for extra variation[1].
### Is There Are No Accidents still popular?
The template is a classic Master Oogway exploitable from the 2017 r/dankmemes era and still shows up in Kung Fu Panda meme compilations, though its peak traffic was September 2017[2].
## References
1. [https://www.reddit.com/r/dankmemes/comments/6y7fnt/the_shitpost_to_end_all_shitposts/]()
2. [https://www.reddit.com/r/MemeEconomy/comments/6yfhkb/master_oogway_memes_gaining_traction_rapidly_buy/]()
3. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/there-are-no-accidents]()
4. [https://www.zilliondesigns.com/blog/winningwednesday-destined-to-love-graphic-design/#POSTS]()
5. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6odKUDvHuc0]()
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Source: https://meme.com/memes/there-are-no-accidents
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