Wizardposting — Triptych of three fantasy wizard artworks with center panel captioned 'Typa shi I been on lately'

Wizardposting

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Published August 12, 2026

Wizardposting is a meme genre that pairs 1980s and 1990s fantasy wizard paintings, mostly by illustrator David B. Mattingly, with modern captions written in Whisper or Algospeak text. It grew out of the Pondering My Orb trend and took off through TikTok slideshows in late 2022.

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Overview

Wizardposting is a meme genre that slaps modern captions, slang, and inside jokes onto fantasy wizard paintings, mostly the moody 1980s and 1990s work of American illustrator David B. Mattingly1. The format treats hooded, staff-wielding wizards as cool and slightly menacing figures, then labels their vibe with lines about smoking, gym trips, or checking phone notifications3. Mattingly, who also painted the Animorphs book covers, is central to the format thanks to pieces like 'The Subway Wizard' and 'The Wizard In The Kitchen'1.

The look is easy to spot: a shadowy wizard scene lifted from paperback fantasy art, plus a caption written in Whisper text or Algospeak. The wizard's grave expression clashes with the mundane or absurd caption, which is the whole joke3.

Origin & Background

Platform
Twitter / TikTok (viral spread)
Date
2022

Wizardposting grew out of the Pondering My Orb trend, which started on Twitter on October 15, 2021 with a post by user @thatsgoodweb featuring wizard art by English illustrator Angus McBride3. The image was originally the cover of Middle-Earth Quest: A Spy In Isengard, a Tolkien-licensed gamebook set inside Saruman's tower of Orthanc4.

Interest in fantasy wizard art picked up through 2022. On May 26, 2022, Twitter user @70sscifi shared two Mattingly paintings, 'The Subway Wizard' and 'The Wizard In The Kitchen,' captioning them 'Late-night gas station run, before and after'3. Mattingly has said 'The Subway Wizard' (1990) was inspired by his Manhattan commute and hides portraits of himself, his wife, his mother, and all their cats inside the scene1.

How It Spread

On September 25, 2022, TikToker @mimofrl posted a photo slideshow set to fantasy wizard illustrations with the Algospeak caption 'the typa $hit i been on,' pulling roughly 303,800 plays and 54,600 likes over seven months3. Days later, on September 30, 2022, @armando.1101 used the same sound for a gym slideshow with a friend, which reached around 424,700 plays. Other creators pushed the audio into slideshows about 'smoking za,' On God, and Rizz3.

By late October 2022, Wizardposting jumped to Instagram through @arcane_scribe, whose wizard memes leaned on Whisper text3. An October 31 post riffing on the Haters Will See You X and Be Like Y format was reposted by @crazylipzig and drew around 127,300 likes. A November 4 image captioned 'how it feels to open the Notes app' spread further, and by early 2023 the format was a staple on Instagram and iFunny3.

In December 2022, the Shadow Wizard Money Gang meme took off on TikTok using Joeyy and DJ Smokey's song 'Gout,' pushing wizard aesthetics deeper into slang edits2.

How to Use This Meme

A typical Wizardposting meme pairs a 1980s or 1990s fantasy wizard painting, often by David B. Mattingly, with a short caption written in Whisper text or Algospeak3. Common conventions include framing the wizard as a stand-in for the poster ('me when...'), matching the wizard's serious mood to a mundane situation like a late-night gas station run or opening the Notes app, or setting the image to the Shadow Wizard Money Gang sound on TikTok2.

Frequently Asked Questions