# Trebuchets

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 surge[1].

## Origin
Trebuchets as a physical weapon date to China in the 4th century CE[3]. 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-2017[4].

- **Platform:** Facebook / Reddit (viral spread)
- **Creator:** Unknown
- **Date:** 2015

## 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 week[2]. Daily Dot described the result as a flood of trebuchet posts on Facebook and Reddit around November 2016[1].

Trebuchet fans openly hate catapults, which they treat as fit only for an inexperienced first raid on a castle keep[2]. 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 concedes[5]. Early posts also mixed trebuchet references with crusader humor from pages like Duchy of Burgundyball[2].

## How to Use
People typically drop the 90 kg / 300 m stat into an existing meme template, often with a dig at catapults as the inferior option[2]. 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 inferior[5].

## Frequently Asked Questions
### What is Trebuchets?
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[2].

### 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[4].

### 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[2].

### 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[5].

### 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[1].

## References
1. [https://www.dailydot.com/unclick/trebuchet-memes/](<https://www.dailydot.com/unclick/trebuchet-memes/>)
2. [https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2016/11/what-are-trebuchet-memes.html](<https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2016/11/what-are-trebuchet-memes.html>)
3. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trebuchet](<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trebuchet>)
4. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/trebuchets](<https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/trebuchets>)
5. [https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Trebuchets](<https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Trebuchets>)

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Source: https://meme.com/memes/trebuchets
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