What does You Are Sheltering Enemies of the State, Are You Not? mean?

In meme form it is a mock accusation, with Landa's heavy menace deployed against someone concealing something petty, like snacks, a feature, or an app.

How do you use You Are Sheltering Enemies of the State, Are You Not??

Users typically post the still with either a full caption or a one-word substitution for 'enemies,' so the question can target anything from Twitter Blue checkmarks to a hidden snack stash.

Is You Are Sheltering Enemies of the State, Are You Not? still popular?

The format saw repeat use through at least August 2023, when a Twitter Blue version attracted over 60,300 likes, and Know Your Meme records continued circulation on Instagram and Twitter.

You Are Sheltering Enemies of the State, Are You Not?

Q: What is You Are Sheltering Enemies of the State, Are You Not??

It is a reaction image taken from the opening interrogation scene of Quentin Tarantino's 2009 film Inglorious Basterds, used online since 2019 to accuse someone of hiding a minor secret.

Q: Where did You Are Sheltering Enemies of the State, Are You Not? come from?

The line is spoken by Hans Landa, played by Christoph Waltz, in Inglorious Basterds. Its first viral meme use was an August 7, 2019 post on r/memes about childhood hide and seek.

2019reaction imagesemi-active

Published October 25, 2026

In Quentin Tarantino's 2009 film Inglorious Basterds, SS officer Hans Landa questions a French dairy farmer with the line 'You are sheltering enemies of the state, are you not?' The screenshot of Christoph Waltz leaning in with a cigarette turned into a reaction image on Reddit in August 2019. By August 2023, Twitter users were deploying the same still to needle the platform over hidden blue checkmarks.

movie quote memes reaction memes snowclone memes villain memes delayed virality memes

Overview

Posts using the format match Landa's probing, cigarette-in-hand expression with any scenario where someone is caught concealing a minor truth1. Captions sit directly on the still, or strip the line down to the quoted question with a one-word substitution, so 'enemies' turns into 'snacks,' 'homework' or whatever contraband fits the joke3.

The humor relies on scale mismatch, since Christoph Waltz's measured menace sits against stakes like a parent checking a backpack or a company burying a feature nobody asked about4. Posters often skip explicit setup text and let the image carry the accusation, which is why single-panel versions outnumber multi-panel edits.

Gallery

Origin & Background

Platform

Reddit (first viral meme) / Inglorious Basterds (source scene)

Date

2019

Inglorious Basterds opens with a dairy farm interrogation, in which SS Colonel Hans Landa, played by Christoph Waltz, corners Perrier LaPadite about a Jewish family hidden beneath his floorboards. The exact line is delivered a few minutes into the scene with Waltz's unsettling politeness, and the full exchange is available on YouTube2.

The earliest documented meme using the still was posted on August 7, 2019, when a now-deleted Redditor shared it on r/memes with a caption about playing hide and seek as a child, picking up more than 40,000 upvotes over four years1. Know Your Meme logs this Reddit post as the first viral use of the frame3.

How It Spread

Instagram accounts picked up the format over the following two years. User meaningful_incellectuals_only posted an iteration dated October 26 that drew over 2,200 likes5, while user the28yearoldmale shared a version on October 29, 2021 that reached more than 3,100 likes6.

The format reached its widest audience on August 2, 2023, when Twitter user @ch1w33th3d0g applied the Landa still to Twitter itself after the platform announced that paying users could hide their Blue checkmarks. The post logged over 60,300 likes within five days4. Later uses still lean on the Twitter Blue joke template, with the question reframed around the hidden object of the week.

How to Use This Meme

The common convention is a single-panel edit of the Landa interrogation still, with either a full caption above the image or a modified version of the quoted question overlaid on the frame itself. Posters typically substitute one noun for 'enemies,' matching the gravity of Landa's delivery to a trivial accusation.