About
Spock is Not Impressed is a photoshop meme featuring a photograph of the Star Trek character Spock posing in a cross-armed stance. The meme involves superimposing a cut-out image of the character into other base images of various settings to appear as if he is unfazed by the events taking place.
Origin
The single topic blog“Spock is Not Impressed”[1] was launched on the microblogging site Tumblr on July 27th, 2011. The same day, a link to the blog was posted on Google Plus[2] by the site’s creator Sean Bonner.
The stillshot of Spock originally comes from a scene in the Season 2, Episode 15 of Star Trek: The Original Series titled “The Trouble With Tribbles”[3], in which Captain James Kirk laughs with his crew about an infestation of space pests. The episode originally aired on December 28th, 1967.
Spread
On July 27th, 2011, Bonner’s photoshop tribute to Spock began gaining momentum after the link was reshared by the Star Trek co-star Wil Wheaton on Google Plus,[8] which was well-received with more than 1,600 pluses and 770 shares. On July 28th, the blog was highlighted on several Internet news sites including MSNBC Technolog[6], Laughing Squid[4], Blame It On The Voices[9], UpRoxx[5] and Rasterweb.[10] On August 2nd, the Houston Press[7] published an article titled “Meme of the Week: Spock is Not Impressed”, which cited Bonner as the site’s creator and highlighted several notable examples from the series.
On August 14th, YouTuber Glenarzo uploaded a video titled “Spock is not Impressed”, in which a teenager updates his Facebook status to appease Spock (shown above). On April 8th, 2012, the Internet humor site Neatorama[12] highlighted a photo of the 1960s English rock band The Beatles with Spock superimposed in the foreground (shown below). As of August 8th, 2012, the “Spock = Not Impressed” Pinterest[11] page has received 640 followers and over 55 pins.
Notable Examples
McKayla is Not Impressed
In August 2012, a similar photoshop meme known as McKayla is Not Impressed emerged, based on a photograph of U.S. gymnast McKayla Maroney wearing a scowling expression during the award ceremony at the 2012 Olympic Games in London.
Search Interest
External References
[1]Tumblr – Spock Is Not Impressed
[2]Google Plus – Sean Bonner’
[3]Memory Alpha – There Will Be No Tribble At All
[4]Laughing Squid – Spock is Not Impressed
[5]Uproxx – Meme Watch: Spock is Not Impressed
[6]MSNBC– Pre-Caffeine Tech: Spock is Not Impressed
[7]Houston Press – Meme of the Week: Spock is Not Impressed
[8]Google Plus – Will Wheaton
[9]Blame it On the Voices – Spock is not impressed
[10]Rasterweb – Spock Is Not Impressed
[11]Pinterest – Spock = Not Impressed
[12]Neatorama – Spock is Not Impressed