The "Grinch knee surgery tomorrow" meme originated in 2021, featuring various images with the same caption. Its current form utilizes a blue-tinted Grinch image, popularized by the Instagram account @bluegrinchy. The meme's popularity has fluctuated, experiencing a recent resurgence.
The meme's humor is absurdist, relying on the unexpected juxtaposition of the Grinch's joyful anticipation and the impending knee surgery. Its appeal lies in the shared understanding among those 'in on the joke'. Its spread showcases the often-nonsensical yet compelling nature of internet memes.
The meme's recent rise in popularity is tied to its adoption by the crypto community, leading to the creation of a knee-themed cryptocurrency. This highlights the increasing intersection of internet culture and financial speculation.
The article discusses how the meme's adoption by financial interests represents a shift in how meme value is assessed – from cultural impact to financial gain. This is viewed as somewhat disheartening, potentially marking the meme's eventual decline. The infiltration of financial interests ultimately threatens the organic nature and spontaneous creativity of internet memes.
You might have seen an image of a blue-tinted, smiling Grinch with the caption, “That feeling when knee surgery is tomorrow.”
The meme has proved surprisingly durable, but what on earth does it mean?
Nothing—you either find the captioned image funny, or you don’t. It’s an absurdist joke, just the Grinch gleefully anticipating a dreaded surgical procedure.
It’s silly, nonsensical and kinda surreal, a typical Gen Z meme, where the joke isn't so much about the joke itself, but being in on the joke.
However, the meme’s spread, recent surge in popularity and inevitable co-opting from the crypto community makes for an interesting story.
Know Your Meme dates the first “celebratory knee surgery” meme to an April 2021 post made on MemeCreator.org, showing a squirrel raising its arms in the air, captioned with, “That feeling when knee surgery is tomorrow.”
In August 2021, a post was made on Reddit with the same caption, plastered over a photo of Drake looking carefree and elated. For some reason, the meme inspired a dedicated subreddit, r/Kneesurgerymemes, which is very sparsely populated, with just under 4000 subscribers.
The meme made its way here and there, being reposted from different websites and changing images, but always retaining the same caption, until it was solidified with the now-standard blue Grinch by the Instagram account bluegrinchy, which is almost entirely dedicated to surreal blue Grinch memes.
The meme and Instagram account are not officially affiliated with Dr. Seuss, but bluegrinchy has been remarkably consistent with their grinch-posting, and refers to the blue Grinch as “the blinch.”
The meme didn’t exactly go viral, but it’s never gone away, and has recently increased in popularity, having gained a dedicated subreddit (which is slightly more populated than the original meme subreddit).
Recently, it was posted by the official Dr Seuss Instagram account, featuring Jim Carrey’s version of the Grinch, tinted blue—no doubt, the festive season has helped the meme spread.
The Liberal Party of Australia posted a TikTok edit of the meme, and the image has made its way into this year’s Spotify Wrapped posts.
The meme has gained enough traction that it has, inevitably, inspired a knee-themed crypto coin, which many of the posts are now advertising.
This isn’t the first instance of a silly meme inspiring a crypto coin—dogecoin, famously endorsed by Elon Musk, was the most high-profile instance of a meme turning into an investment opportunity, and sparked something of a goldrush, as the crypto community realized they could turn memes into money.
Internet-culture reporter Taylor Lorenz covered the rise of the Grinch meme in her newsletter, User Mag, where she wrote:
"Memes have always had value — they spread ideas, build communities, shape culture — but that value is no longer measured in cultural impact or virality, it's measured in cryptocurrency."
It’s rather sobering that financial speculation has managed to infiltrate memes—surely the lowest art form, but one of the few forms of human creative expression that still exists outside of the marketplace.
No matter—the meme’s co-opting by crypto bros means that it’s already fading, and every single explainer (like this article) is another nail in the Grinch’s coffin.
The Grinch is happy to be getting knee surgery tomorrow, but the joke’s probably not funny anymore; the adults found out about it, and are trying to turn a profit.
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