What Men Truly Think About
Dialogue
Overview
The meme features a stock photo of a heterosexual couple lying in bed. The woman on the left is turned towards the man, looking suspicious and pensive, with overlaid text representing her thought: 'He's probably thinking of cheating on me.' The man on the right is turned away from her, looking off into the distance deep in thought, with overlaid text representing his internal monologue: 'How does the US government store 1.4 billion pounds of cheese in underground caves?' The humor comes from subverting the common cultural stereotype that women assume men are being unfaithful when they are quiet or distracted, when in reality men often fixate on random, esoteric, trivial facts or questions that have no connection to their relationship.
Origin notes
This meme originates from the Reddit r/memes community, posted under the title 'What men truly think about.' It uses the extremely popular pre-existing 'distracted couple in bed' stock photo meme template, which has been widely used for years to contrast a partner's suspicious assumptions against the other person's completely unrelated, often absurd thoughts. The joke references the real public record of the United States Department of Agriculture holding a large surplus stockpile of cheese stored in underground caves, adding credibility to the random thought the man is having.