As an American waking up this morning, we're doing what in the what now?
Overview
A two-panel meme utilizing a historical portrait painting. The top panel depicts an 18th-century man with white hair, dressed in a maroon coat, intently reading a newspaper with a focused and engaged expression. The bottom panel shows the same man looking up from the newspaper, his expression shifting to one of明显的 confusion or shock. This meme uses the contrast between the two panels to humorously convey a reaction of surprise or bewilderment towards unexpected or confusing news, a common trope in reaction memes.
Origin notes
The meme originates from Reddit (specifically the Meme community) as indicated by the provided source information. The original base image is an 18th-century portrait painting, which has been repurposed by splitting it into two panels to depict a narrative shift in reaction—from focused reading to confused surprise. This editing technique is typical of reaction memes, where existing visual content is modified to convey emotional transitions in response to stimuli like news or events.
![A two-panel meme featuring Syndrome, a character from the animated film 'The Incredibles,' set against a sunset ocean background. The top panel shows Syndrome with curly red hair, wearing a red and gold suit, displaying an anxious expression while clasping his hands. Overlaid text reads: 'There is no [blacked out] there is no [blacked out].' The bottom panel shows the same character with a more intense, defiant expression, leaning forward, with overlaid text: 'and there is no Epstein list.' The meme uses sarcasm to reference the controversial 'Epstein list' conspiracy theory by depicting Syndrome denying its existence, leveraging his villainous persona from the original film.](https://gagbase.com/i/c/memes/3b/d6/55/8b/3bd6558bae1d0e9aa384ff243b4dad65.jpeg.webp)
