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

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.

## Origin
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 YouTube[2].

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 years[1]. Know Your Meme logs this Reddit post as the first viral use of the frame[3].

- **Platform:** Reddit (first viral meme) / Inglorious Basterds (source scene)
- **Creator:** Unknown
- **Date:** 2019

## Overview
Posts using the format match Landa's probing, cigarette-in-hand expression with any scenario where someone is caught concealing a minor truth[1]. 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 joke[3].

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 about[4]. Posters often skip explicit setup text and let the image carry the accusation, which is why single-panel versions outnumber multi-panel edits.

## How to Use
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.

## Frequently Asked Questions
### 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[3].

### 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[2]. Its first viral meme use was an August 7, 2019 post on r/memes about childhood hide and seek[1].

### 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[4].

### 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[4].

### 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[4], and Know Your Meme records continued circulation on Instagram and Twitter[3].

## References
1. [https://www.reddit.com/r/memes/comments/cn5ssk/its_treason_then/](<https://www.reddit.com/r/memes/comments/cn5ssk/its_treason_then/>)
2. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXXbMDSl4dA](<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXXbMDSl4dA>)
3. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/you-are-sheltering-enemies-of-the-state-are-you-not](<https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/you-are-sheltering-enemies-of-the-state-are-you-not>)
4. [https://twitter.com/ch1w33th3d0g/status/1686660771797975040](<https://twitter.com/ch1w33th3d0g/status/1686660771797975040>)
5. [https://www.instagram.com/p/CVgvVf-sZnR/](<https://www.instagram.com/p/CVgvVf-sZnR/>)
6. [https://www.instagram.com/p/CVm-B83BYbH/](<https://www.instagram.com/p/CVm-B83BYbH/>)

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Source: https://meme.com/memes/you-are-sheltering-enemies-of-the-state-are-you-not
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