# What Do You Mean You Don't Like X?
A four-panel shadowboxing diagram by illustrator Jason Lee, originally drawn for a Men's Journal boxing workout, became an exploitable image macro after Redditors started captioning it in late 2020[1]. By September 2021, Twitter users were pasting photos of pickles and soup over the fighter's punches to show how they would beat up anyone who dislikes those foods[2].
## Origin
Illustrator Jason Lee drew the four-punch shadowboxing diagram for Men's Journal's article "This Boxing Workout Will Get You in the Best Shape of Your Life," where it illustrated a round of shadow boxing moves[1]. The illustration was ripped from the fitness article and posted to r/MemeTemplatesOfficial under the title "Boxing Moves 'Powerful Combo'" in November 2020, which is the earliest documented appearance of the template on Reddit[5].
On December 30th, 2020, Redditor u/zakaria20199 posted the diagram to r/Memes with the caption "Me for no reason," and the post pulled around 30,000 upvotes in under a day before it was later deleted[4]. The phrasal version was coined on September 5th, 2021, when Twitter user @hexgamesmode posted a version captioned "What do you mean you don't like Pickles," with jars of pickles pasted over each punch[2].
- **Platform:** Reddit (template) / Twitter (viral phrasal spread)
- **Creator:** Unknown
- **Date:** 2020
## Overview
Each edit places four images, usually photos of the same subject, over the four punches thrown by the cartoon fighter in Jason Lee's shadowboxing diagram[1]. The joke reads as an escalating assault aimed at anyone who dislikes whatever is shown, so a stack of pickle jars or four shots of a cat tells you exactly who the poster plans to beat up and why[2].
The caption formula settled on by Twitter users in September 2021 is "What do you mean you don't like [X]," where X is whatever the fighter is defending[2]. Earlier Reddit uses skipped the catchphrase and leaned on captions like "Me for no reason," treating the four-punch combo as a visual exaggeration rather than a defense of a specific thing[3]. Both styles still circulate, and the template has been reused for food, colors, programming languages and internet pets like Bingus[4].
## How It Spread
Before the catchphrase existed, the template already moved between subreddits. On April 10th, 2021, a post using the diagram hit r/ProgrammerHumor with the caption "Thank you for coming to my TED talk" and collected roughly 5,000 upvotes[6]. Twitter users like @hektic_one had also been posting unlabeled remixes of the Powerful Combo image through early 2021[7].
@hexgamesmode's pickles tweet pushed the format into mainstream Twitter use, pulling around 245,000 likes and 48,000 retweets inside a week[2]. One day later, on September 6th, 2021, @bodegacat__ swapped pickles for soup and collected roughly 203,000 likes and 35,000 retweets with the same caption structure[8]. From there, the "What do you mean you don't like X" variant spread to Instagram and spawned entries about the color pink, yellow and the cat Bingus, per Know Your Meme's writeup[5].
## Frequently Asked Questions
### What is What Do You Mean You Don't Like X??
It is an exploitable image macro built on Jason Lee's shadowboxing diagram of a fighter throwing four punches, with images pasted over the punches to show who the poster is beating up for not liking something[1][5].
### Where did What Do You Mean You Don't Like X? come from?
The underlying illustration came from a 2020 Men's Journal boxing workout article by Jason Lee[1], and the four-punch diagram was first posted as a meme template to r/MemeTemplatesOfficial in November 2020[3].
### What does What Do You Mean You Don't Like X? mean?
The joke reads as a mock-threatening defense of whatever is shown in the punch panels, so pickles pasted over the fighter means the poster will fight anyone who doesn't like pickles[2].
### How do you use What Do You Mean You Don't Like X??
Edit four images of the thing you want to defend over the fighter's punches and caption the image "What do you mean you don't like [X]," following the format @hexgamesmode set in September 2021[2].
### Is What Do You Mean You Don't Like X? still popular?
The template became a classic exploitable after Twitter picked up the phrasal version in September 2021, with the Powerful Combo image macro reused across Twitter, Reddit and Instagram for subjects from soup to Bingus[5][8].
## References
1. [https://www.mensjournal.com/health-fitness/this-boxing-workout-will-get-you-in-the-best-shape-of-your-life-w449318/round-1-shadow-boxing-w449319/]()
2. [https://twitter.com/hexgamesmode/status/1434676777650057216]()
3. [https://www.reddit.com/r/MemeTemplatesOfficial/comments/k0homv/boxing_moves_powerful_combo/]()
4. [https://www.reddit.com/r/memes/comments/kn3bml/accurate_af/]()
5. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/what-do-you-mean-you-dont-like-x-powerful-combo]()
6. [https://www.reddit.com/r/ProgrammerHumor/comments/mo5slq/thank_you_for_coming_to_my_ted_talk/]()
7. [https://twitter.com/hektic_one/status/1348469770425929734?lang=ru]()
8. [https://twitter.com/bodegacat__/status/1434913623185543183]()
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Source: https://meme.com/memes/what-do-you-mean-you-dont-like-x-powerful-combo
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