About
Fake History is an image macro series featuring photographs and screenshots of various people and fictional characters accompanied by false historical captions, bearing many similarities to Troll Quote image macros.
Origin
On July 10th, 2016, reddit user JRA50 posted a picture titled “Horrors of war” on the r/Bikinibottomtwitter subreddit, featuring a picture of Sandy Cheeks and Spongebob Squarepants in black and white and with a description comparing it to an event from World War I. In the following month, the picture gained over 294 points (97% upvoted).[1]
Spread
During the following days, JRA05 uploaded several similar pictures to the subreddit, posting on July 11th[5] and July 16th.[4] On July 14th, reddit user ThePhys25 posted on the iDubbbz subreddit a capture from his video “LEGIT FOODREVIEW– Sewer Pickles”, describing it as a USA soldier escaping from the German Democratic Republic, and gaining over 313 points (97% upvoted) and 26 comments in the following month.[2] On July 16th, user Tr0nJ0n submitted another image that features Spongebob with text about Pearl Harbor, gaining over 124 points (92% upvoted) and 12 comments in the following month.[3] On August 13th, CollegeHumor[8] published a listicle highlighting Fake History images from the /r/BikiniBottomTwitter subreddit.
On October 14th, 2016, the /r/fakehistoryporn[9] subreddit was launched, highlighting various images containing false historical captions. On November 5th, Redditor Trutrundle submitted a Bob the Builder Fake History image titled “Fake History memes on the rise” to the /r/MemeEconomy[11] subreddit, receiving more than 1,100 votes (95% upvoted) within two months (shown below, left). On November 16th, /r/fakehistoryporn moderator Vmoney1337 launched the Fake History Caption Maker.[10] On January 5th, 2017, Redditor Scep19 posted a screen captured image from the television series Drake and Josh along with a caption identifying the character Josh Nichols as the Columbian drug lord Pablo Escobar to /r/fakehistoryporn[12] (shown below, right). Within one week, the post garnered upwards of 17,600 votes (90% upvoted) and 280 comments.
On January 11th, 2017, Redditor memefoundry submitted a Spongebob SquarepantsFake History image titled “History Memes making a comeback! Should I invest?” to /r/memeeconomy. The following day, Redditor The_King_Of_Memes submitted a Shrek image erroneously described as President John F. Kennedy and Jackie Kennedy “moments before his tragic assassination” to /r/dank_meme (shown below, right).
Various Examples
Search Interest
External References
[1]r/BikiniBottomTwitter – The Horrors of War
[2]r/Idubbbz – U.S Soldier attempts to escape from a NVA torture camp through a underground tunnel in 1969.
[3]r/BikiniBottomTwitter – Our brave soldiers
[4]r/BikiniBottomTwitter – Mr. Gorbachev – tear down this wall!
[5]r/BikiniBottomTwitter – Thank you for your service
[6]r/BikiniBottomTwitter – History in Pictures: The Album
[7]reddit – r/BikiniBottomInHistory
[8]CollegeHumor – 20 Spongebob Moments Hilarious Captioned with Historical Context
[9]Reddit – /r/fakehistoryporn
[10]Powerade.org – Fake History Caption Maker
[11]Reddit – Fake History memes on the rise
[12]Reddit – The King of Cocaine
[13]Reddit – History is so cruel