# Those Were the Glory Days

A still from the 2004 Pixar film The Incredibles showing Mr. Incredible gazing at a wall of superhero newspaper clippings became a Reddit-driven reaction image in 2018. The frame turned into a go-to template for mock-sentimental posts about faded internet glory, old video games, and childhood memories.

## Origin
The source frame is from The Incredibles, the Brad Bird-directed Pixar film released in the United States on November 5, 2004[3]. In the scene, Mr. Incredible sits in a cubicle at his insurance job and looks up at a wall of mounted newspaper and magazine clippings from his hero days, a moment that Pixar used to set up his midlife frustration.

The shot was flagged online as early as 2009, when io9 included it in a roundup on the 'Wall of Newspaper Clippings' film cliche and singled out the Incredible magazine covers for praise[4]. The still began circulating as a standalone image on Twitter on January 5, 2016, when user @Brassrhino posted it with the caption 'mistah incwedible'[5]. The reaction-image usage that defined the meme did not take off until 2018 on Reddit.

- **Platform:** The Incredibles (film source) / Reddit (viral spread)
- **Creator:** Unknown
- **Date:** 2018

## Overview
Those Were the Glory Days works as a two-part sadness bit. The screen grab shows Mr. Incredible, voiced by Craig T. Nelson, standing in his home office and staring up at framed newspaper clippings celebrating his superhero past[3]. Posters pair that image with a top-text caption describing some specific small victory from their own history that will never happen again, usually a Reddit upvote count, an old YouTube favorite, or a childhood game.

The image also fuels a sub-format where the newspaper covers on the wall are photoshopped to show whatever the poster is nostalgic for, swapping the Incredibles magazine art for Minecraft screenshots, old memes, or video game box art[1]. The art direction of those in-universe magazine covers was praised by io9 as 'absolutely frame worthy,' which is part of why the shot edits so cleanly[4].

Tone is key. The meme is sincere-ironic: the thing being mourned is almost always trivial, but the dramatic Pixar framing sells it as a tragedy[2].

## How to Use
The common convention is to pair the Mr. Incredible wall-of-clippings screenshot with a caption that frames some mundane past achievement or lost pleasure as a lost golden age. Top-text captions often start with 'When...' and name something trivially specific, like an old viral post, a defunct game server, or a canceled show. The photoshopped variant typically keeps the pose and lighting intact and only swaps the framed clippings for images of whatever the poster is nostalgic for.

## Frequently Asked Questions
### What is Those Were the Glory Days?
It is a reaction image macro built from a shot of Mr. Incredible in The Incredibles (2004) staring up at a wall of newspaper clippings from his superhero past, used to joke about personal nostalgia[2].

### Where did Those Were the Glory Days come from?
The frame comes from Pixar's The Incredibles, released November 5, 2004, and was first praised online in a 2009 io9 piece about the 'wall of newspaper clippings' film cliche[4].

### What does Those Were the Glory Days mean?
It is a sincere-ironic bit about mourning a trivial past achievement, like an old viral upvote or a forgotten video game, as if it were a vanished heroic career[1].

### How do you use Those Were the Glory Days?
People typically caption the Mr. Incredible screenshot with a specific lost memory, or photoshop the framed clippings on the wall to show the thing they are nostalgic for, such as old Minecraft Let's Plays[6].

### Is Those Were the Glory Days still popular?
It is a classic Mr. Incredible reaction image that still circulates alongside other Incredibles-based templates documented on Know Your Meme[2].

## References
1. [https://www.reddit.com/r/PewdiepieSubmissions/comments/9rdhvx/happynt/](<https://www.reddit.com/r/PewdiepieSubmissions/comments/9rdhvx/happynt/>)
2. [https://www.reddit.com/r/MemeEconomy/comments/9rdny6/did_not_see_this_in_the_new_section_even_though/](<https://www.reddit.com/r/MemeEconomy/comments/9rdny6/did_not_see_this_in_the_new_section_even_though/>)
3. [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0317705/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1](<https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0317705/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1>)
4. [https://io9.gizmodo.com/the-ultimate-movie-cliche-the-wall-of-newspaper-clippi-5433567](<https://io9.gizmodo.com/the-ultimate-movie-cliche-the-wall-of-newspaper-clippi-5433567>)
5. [https://twitter.com/Brassrhino/status/684342490401353728](<https://twitter.com/Brassrhino/status/684342490401353728>)
6. [https://www.reddit.com/r/dankmemes/comments/9ysndy/before_the_dark_times/](<https://www.reddit.com/r/dankmemes/comments/9ysndy/before_the_dark_times/>)
7. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/those-were-the-glory-days](<https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/those-were-the-glory-days>)

---
Source: https://meme.com/memes/those-were-the-glory-days
Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library