Explained: oh, worm? meme
This is a meme that mainly involves using the phrase “oh, worm?” and variations thereof.
The phrase “oh, worm?” seems to be a purposeful alteration of the phrase “oh word”, a phrase associated with a macro on Meme Generator which has been dubbed “Lil D-wade” [archived link]. The macro features what is presumably a childhood photo of the American basketball player Dwyane Wade.
In one instance of the macro, the image was captioned with “OH WORM?”. From scrolling through the instances of captions for the macro, one can see that the meme with the “OH WORM?” caption has been generated several times. (Here is an example of one.)
It is unclear as to when the “OH WORM?” caption was first used. However, it seems to have existed since at least November 2016.
UPDATE (17 Dec 2017): We have found that the image macro was posted to Tumblr on 19 September 2016 by Tumblr user @gwynndolin. This appears to be what inspired future references to the phrase “oh, worm?”.
The phrase “oh, worm?” was brought to Tumblr thanks, in part, to Tumblr user @6thhouse. (The user wrote to us in this reblog here.)
On 9 November 2016, the user published a text post that simply stated, “oh worm?” Then, on 10 November 2016, the user made another post referencing “oh, worm?”; this post stated, “i’ve devolved into a caveman that can only say ‘mood’ and ‘oh worm?’”. This latter post has proved to be quite popular, garnering more than 15,000 notes.
Interest in “oh, worm?” returned in 2017 when the user @6thhouse made another post about it on 18 February 2017. This post requested for “oh worm.jpg”, which was then supplied in a reblog.
Subsequently, the phrase “oh, worm?” became popular on Tumblr. After the post from 18 February 2017, there was a relatively slow growth of the meme. For example, a post originally published on 11 May 2017 featured the phrase “oh worm” in a glittery typography.
However, the meme seemed to have had a greater growth in popularity starting around June 2017. For example, one post originally published on 8 June 2017 makes mention of “oh, wyrm?” Another post, originally published on 5 June 2017, crossed the oh, worm? meme with the nut button meme.
The meme has experienced continued popularity after June 2017. For instance, one post, originally published on 27 July 2017, states, “Literally how does “oh worm?” express every possible human emotion”.
Part of the interest in the meme appears to be the fact that the meme’s origins have remained elusive despite its popularity. For example, there was a submission to r/OutOfTheLoop from 8 June 2017 asking about the oh, worm? meme which has remained “unanswered”. (Also, this post makes reference to how not even Meme Documentation knew the origin of the meme.)
Acknowledgements go to @6thhouse and all the users who helped us research this meme!
Click here to see examples of the oh, worm? meme.
