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Thought they'd be bigger tbh

This is a two-panel expectation vs reality meme. The top panel shows an intimidating, large close-up of a deep-sea anglerfish with huge sharp teeth, matching the common scary popular depiction of anglerfish that most people see. The bottom panel shows a real anglerfish, which is actually very small, small enough to fit in the palm of a person wearing rubber gloves, and it is circled in red to highlight its unexpectedly tiny size. The text at the top of the image reads 'Thought they'd be bigger tbh', expressing the poster's surprise that real anglerfish are much smaller than popular media depictions lead people to believe.
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Thought they'd be bigger tbh

Overview

This is a two-panel expectation vs reality meme. The top panel shows an intimidating, large close-up of a deep-sea anglerfish with huge sharp teeth, matching the common scary popular depiction of anglerfish that most people see. The bottom panel shows a real anglerfish, which is actually very small, small enough to fit in the palm of a person wearing rubber gloves, and it is circled in red to highlight its unexpectedly tiny size. The text at the top of the image reads 'Thought they'd be bigger tbh', expressing the poster's surprise that real anglerfish are much smaller than popular media depictions lead people to believe.

Origin notes

This meme originates from Reddit as a viral user-created meme, sourced from the Reddit meme community as noted. It jokes about the common misconception that anglerfish are large, terrifying deep-sea monsters from movies and pop culture, when most anglerfish species are actually quite small, only growing to roughly the size of a human hand, which makes this unexpected fact the punchline of the joke.

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This two-panel meme contrasts popular media depictions of anglerfish with their actual real size. The top panel shows a large, terrifying, monstrous anglerfish with a huge gaping mouth full of sharp teeth, which matches how most people imagine this deep sea fish. The bottom panel shows a real anglerfish, which is actually tiny enough to fit comfortably on the palm of a person's gloved hand, with the small fish circled in red to highlight its unexpected small size. The text at the top reads 'Thought they'd be bigger tbh' (short for 'to be honest'), expressing the common expectation that anglerfish are much larger than they actually are. This is a screenshot of a Twitter/X post from verified user selinam, handle @bennynotblanco.

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