Trebuchets is an internet joke that casts the medieval counterweighted siege engine as superior to the catapult, centered on the fact that a trebuchet can hurl a 90 kg projectile over 300 meters.

Where did Trebuchets come from?

The joke started on the Facebook page Duchy of Burgundyball on February 6th, 2015, and a dedicated subreddit, r/trebuchetmemes, was created in December 2015.

What does Trebuchets mean?

In meme form, the trebuchet is cast as the superior siege weapon over the catapult, with fans invoking its 90 kg / 300 m range as the proof.

How do you use Trebuchets?

People typically drop the 90 kg / 300 m stat into an existing meme template or write dialogue where a catapult defender eventually concedes to a trebuchet partisan.

Is Trebuchets still popular?

Trebuchets peaked during the r/me_irl Meme Renaissance in October and November 2016, when The Daily Dot and Select All both covered the surge.

Trebuchets

2015meta-memeclassic

Published October 16, 2026

Trebuchets are an internet joke that casts the medieval counterweighted siege engine as objectively superior to the catapult, anchored on the fact that a trebuchet can hurl a 90 kg projectile over 300 meters. The gag circulated on Facebook history pages through 2015 and went viral in October 2016 after a Reddit TIL about Edward I's Warwolf sent r/trebuchetmemes trending. By November 2016, The Daily Dot and Select All had both filed explainers on the surge1.

subreddit origin memes delayed virality memes catchphrase memes facebook memes 2016 memes

Overview

The joke works less as a single image template and more as a reusable punchline grafted onto other formats. New York magazine's Select All called it a meta-meme where one factoid about launching 90 kilograms of projectile over 300 meters is slotted into whatever template is active that week2. Daily Dot described the result as a flood of trebuchet posts on Facebook and Reddit around November 20161.

Trebuchet fans openly hate catapults, which they treat as fit only for an inexperienced first raid on a castle keep2. The Urban Dictionary entry from the same era writes out the standard dialogue formula: a 'plebeian' praises the catapult, a 'Dominus' asks whether it can throw 90 kg over 300 meters using a counterweight, and the catapult fan concedes5. Early posts also mixed trebuchet references with crusader humor from pages like Duchy of Burgundyball2.

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Origin & Background

Platform

Facebook / Reddit (viral spread)

Date

2015

Trebuchets as a physical weapon date to China in the 4th century CE3. The meme version began on the Facebook page Duchy of Burgundyball, which uploaded its first trebuchet post on February 6th, 2015. A dedicated subreddit, r/trebuchetmemes, was created on December 7th, 2015 by user hildy77 and grew past 62,000 subscribers by mid-20174.

How It Spread

The joke stayed niche through most of 2015 and the first half of 2016. On October 7th, 2016, Redditor dryersheetz posted a TIL to r/todayilearned explaining that Edward I of England commissioned the largest trebuchet ever made, named Warwolf, to besiege a Scottish castle; the garrison tried to surrender on sight, but Edward sent them back so he could use the weapon anyway1. The post climbed past 9,600 upvotes and sent r/trebuchetmemes trending on Reddit4.

The Daily Dot ran an explainer in November 2016 covering the Warwolf story and the surge of trebuchet jokes on Facebook and Reddit, including a dedicated r/OutOfTheLoop thread asking what the memes were about1. Select All followed with its own writeup the same month, calling the posts a meta-meme and noting the trebuchet fandom's open contempt for catapults2. A Twitter account focused on trebuchet memes was active by then1.

Timeline

2015-02-06

The Facebook page Duchy of Burgundyball uploads its first trebuchet meme, picking up 139 likes.

2015-12-07

User hildy77 creates the subreddit r/trebuchetmemes.

2016-02-18

A Facebook page devoted to trebuchet memes is created.

2016-10-07

Redditor dryersheetz posts a TIL on r/todayilearned about Edward I's Warwolf trebuchet; it climbs past 9,600 upvotes.

2016-10

R/trebuchetmemes trends on Reddit; r/OutOfTheLoop opens a thread asking where trebuchet memes are coming from.

2016-11

The Daily Dot and Select All publish explainers; a dedicated trebuchet memes Twitter account is active.

2017-07-18

R/trebuchetmemes passes 62,000 subscribers per Know Your Meme's tally.

How to Use This Meme

People typically drop the 90 kg / 300 m stat into an existing meme template, often with a dig at catapults as the inferior option2. The classic dialogue version uses a 'plebeian' championing a catapult and a 'Dominus' asking whether it can match the trebuchet's range before declaring it inferior5.