# This Looks Shopped This Looks Shopped is an image macro built around the mock-expert catchphrase 'THIS LOOKS SHOPPED / I CAN TELL FROM SOME OF THE PIXELS AND FROM SEEING QUITE A FEW SHOPS IN MY TIME,' used to call out suspected Photoshop fakes on 4chan and other image boards during the mid-to-late 2000s[2]. The gag parodies armchair image forensics, and the phrase outlived the macro to became shorthand for any clearly doctored picture. ## Origin The exact origin of the catchphrase is unclear. The earliest documented appearance is an article cached from Metaeducation.com in 2003, which Know Your Meme flags as the first known use of the 'this looks shopped' wording in the sense that later anchored the macro[2]. The phrasing circulated on 4chan and similar boards through the mid-2000s before the full two-line macro template settled into its familiar shape. The format got its own home in July 2008, when a graphic designer from New England launched the single-topic blog Thislooksshopped.com dedicated to posting examples[2]. That blog is widely treated as the point at which the macro moved from scattered forum reply to a named, collected format. - **Platform:** Image boards (4chan, FARK, Something Awful) - **Creator:** Unknown - **Date:** 2008 ## Overview The format pairs a picture of someone pointing at a computer monitor, or any suspicious-looking composite image, with the two-line caption 'THIS LOOKS SHOPPED / I CAN TELL FROM SOME OF THE PIXELS AND FROM SEEING QUITE A FEW SHOPS IN MY TIME'[2]. The joke lands two ways. Sometimes the shop in the picture is painfully obvious, so the caption's confident deduction reads as redundant. Other times the image is a flawless edit, making the imaginary expert sound like a crank. Variants swap the 'pointing at the screen' photo for stock images of magnifying glasses, forensic analysts and smug cartoon characters, while the caption stays mostly fixed. The core bit is the self-serious tone, especially the 'from seeing quite a few shops in my time' flex, which does the comedic work regardless of whether the attached picture is real or fake[2]. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is This Looks Shopped? It is an image macro whose caption reads 'THIS LOOKS SHOPPED / I CAN TELL FROM SOME OF THE PIXELS AND FROM SEEING QUITE A FEW SHOPS IN MY TIME,' used to mock amateur Photoshop detectives[2]. ### Where did This Looks Shopped come from? The wording was first spotted in a 2003 Metaeducation.com article, and the macro format was collected on the blog Thislooksshopped.com starting in July 2008[2]. ### What does This Looks Shopped mean? It is sarcastic shorthand for calling an image a Photoshop job, played straight when the edit is obvious and ironically when the image is clearly real or a perfect fake[2]. ### How do you use This Looks Shopped? People typically slap the two-line caption on a picture of someone squinting at a screen or on the suspect image itself, keeping the 'pixels' and 'quite a few shops' wording intact for the joke to land[2]. ### Is This Looks Shopped still popular? The full macro is a classic rather than a current trend, but the shortened line 'I can tell from the pixels' is still thrown around online whenever a hoax photo surfaces[1][2]. ## References 1. [https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=This%20Looks%20Shopped]() 2. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/this-looks-shopped]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/this-looks-shopped Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library