GagBase Logo Explore

Rest of world shocked at US town rejecting solar farm over absurd sun energy fear

The meme opens with a shot of solar panels at the top, followed by text describing a real news anecdote: a US town rejected a planned solar farm because residents held the unfounded, scientifically incorrect fear that solar panels would "suck up all the energy from the Sun". Under the label "The rest of the world:", there is a 4-panel sequence of a round fluffy animated sheep character, with each panel zooming progressively closer to the sheep's wide, confused, shocked eyes. This visual progression humorously conveys global disbelief and amusement at the absurd, misinformed reasoning used to oppose renewable energy infrastructure.
Make

Text content

US town rejects solar farm amid worries it would "suck up all the energy from the Sun"
The rest of the world:

Overview

The meme opens with a shot of solar panels at the top, followed by text describing a real news anecdote: a US town rejected a planned solar farm because residents held the unfounded, scientifically incorrect fear that solar panels would "suck up all the energy from the Sun". Under the label "The rest of the world:", there is a 4-panel sequence of a round fluffy animated sheep character, with each panel zooming progressively closer to the sheep's wide, confused, shocked eyes. This visual progression humorously conveys global disbelief and amusement at the absurd, misinformed reasoning used to oppose renewable energy infrastructure.

Origin notes

This meme was posted as a user-created share on Reddit, under the original post title "We can all relate". It remixes the popular progressive zoom shocked sheep reaction meme format, which originates from Aardman Animations' Shaun the Sheep franchise, paired with a widely circulated true news story about anti-solar misinformation in a small US community, to mock anti-renewable energy ignorance.

Similar memes

The meme is divided into two sections. The top section displays an image of solar panels with overlaid text reading: 'US town rejects solar farm amid worries it would "suck up all the energy from the Sun"', mimicking a news headline. The bottom section features a large, heavily distorted yellow face with exaggerated facial features—wide, glassy eyes, raised eyebrows, and an agape mouth—labeled 'NASA scientists:' to visually represent shock, disbelief, or amusement at the town's scientifically unfounded concern about solar energy.

NASA Scientists React to Town Rejecting Solar Farm Over 'Sucking Sun Energy'

The meme is divided into two …

This two-panel comparison meme humorously contrasts local vs global perceptions of Australian geography. The left panel is labeled 'how Australians see Australia' and features a full, detailed, geographically accurate map of the entire Australian continent, with all regions, cities, and surrounding bodies of water clearly marked. The right panel is labeled 'how the rest of the world sees Australia' and depicts almost the entire Australian continent as empty ocean, with only a tiny strip of the east coast visible, only labeled with the city of Sydney. The meme's title jokes that the video game Overwatch will never receive a map set in the major Australian city of Melbourne, playing on the punchline that global game developers (like most people outside Australia) are only aware of a tiny portion of Australian geography, so they would never consider creating content set in lesser-known (to global audiences) Australian cities like Melbourne.

We are never getting a Melbourne map in Overwatch

This two-panel comparison mem…

A meme featuring an animated character resembling Bugs Bunny from Looney Tunes. The top text reads: '*Aliens arrive and threaten to invade* 90% of the population:'. The character displays a sad or indifferent expression, standing against a green landscape with trees, implying 90% of the population is unconcerned about the alien invasion threat.

90% of Population's Reaction to Alien Invasion

A meme featuring an animated …

This satirical meme pairs a quote pointing out corporate opposition to solar energy with an edited scene from *The Simpsons* to create a visual joke. The top of the image features the quote: 'the problem with solar is we can't monopolize the sun or make it scarcer than it is', which highlights how corporate greed blocks widespread adoption of renewable energy because the sun cannot be owned and profited from like non-renewable fossil fuels. Below the quote, the edited Simpsons scene shows Homer Simpson's yellow hands holding a remote control with a prominent red button, aimed at the Springfield skyline where the large town water tower is perfectly aligned via forced perspective to cover the sun, visually implying that corporate interests would block the sun if they could to create artificial scarcity and monopolize solar energy.

We Can't Monopolize The Sun Simpsons Meme

This satirical meme pairs a q…

This meme uses a scene from the animated series *SpongeBob SquarePants* to make a critical joke about the United States education system. A green fish character, labeled 'The rest of the world', has a shocked, horrified expression as it stares at a large pile of feces held in a red glove, which is labeled 'The American school system'. The gag implies that the American school system is of extremely poor quality, comparable to garbage, to the shock of people living in other parts of the world.

Rest of the World Shocked by American School System SpongeBob Meme

This meme uses a scene from t…

A two-panel meme featuring a black bird with purple eyes. The top text sets up a scenario: 'Bird: *sings mating call*', 'Me: *repeats it*', followed by 'Bird:'. The first panel shows the bird with the text 'You want' and the second panel shows the bird looking directly at the viewer with 'sum fuk?' (slang for 'some fuck'), creating a humorous misunderstanding where the bird interprets the repeated mating call as a sexual advance.

Bird Mating Call Misunderstanding Meme

A two-panel meme featuring a …

This is a humorous single-panel meme using an edited outer space/solar system diagram. On the far left, the bright, glowing Sun is labelled 'Sun'. A tiny white dot positioned very close to the Sun is labelled 'UK and the rest of Europe', while the full planet Earth is placed much further away from the Sun, far from the heat of the star. The joke plays on the widespread experience of extreme, record-breaking heatwaves across the UK and European continent, implying that the region feels so abnormally hot that it is effectively located far closer to the Sun than the rest of the planet Earth.

UK and Europe Are Closer to the Sun Than Rest of Earth Heatwave Meme

This is a humorous single-pan…

A meme featuring two lines of text at the top: 'food gives you energy' and 'me after eating:', followed by a photograph of a tan dog with closed eyes, mouth open, and a relaxed, sleepy demeanor. The humor stems from the relatable contrast between the common expectation that food provides energy and the reality of feeling tired after eating, embodied by the dog's peaceful, post-meal state.

When Food Gives You the Opposite of Energy

A meme featuring two lines of…

This is a gaming-focused reaction meme that leverages the iconic shocked Vince McMahon image from WWE. The meme uses a pun: "Isreal engine" sounds phonetically identical to "real engine", creating a humorous contrast with the well-known game development platform Unreal Engine. The image features Vince McMahon with a wide-eyed, open-mouthed shocked expression, which is framed as Unreal Engine's reaction to the arrival of this fictional "real engine". It's a lighthearted joke targeting gaming communities, playing on industry competition and wordplay.

Unreal Engine Shocked At 'Isreal Engine' Pun (Vince McMahon Meme)

This is a gaming-focused reac…

This is a two-panel reaction meme using the popular exasperated Mr. Incredible template from Pixar's The Incredibles. The top text opens with an unfinished sentence: "Did you hear that Elon Mu..", implying someone is starting a conversation about Elon Musk. The first panel shows Mr. Incredible cutting the speaker off with the line "shut the fuck up", and the second panel, where Mr. Incredible has an even more tired, frustrated expression, repeats the sentiment as "please shut the fuck up". The meme expresses widespread public frustration and exhaustion with the constant discourse, news cycles, and unsolicited opinions about Elon Musk that are pervasive across social media.

Stop talking about Elon Musk

This is a two-panel reaction …

The meme features a split layout with text at the top reading 'how to turn on a light?' followed by two labeled sections: 'people who know' (left) and 'people who don't know' (right). Below 'people who know' is an animated character with a cheerful, confident expression—light-colored hair, wide eyes, and a friendly smile, set against a plain light background. Below 'people who don't know' is a shadowy, monochromatic version of the same character, with a confused, eerie expression and dark shadows obscuring parts of their face, creating a stark contrast between confidence and confusion in performing a simple task.

How to Turn On a Light: People Who Know vs. People Who Don't

The meme features a split lay…

A meme combining a tweet from Elon Musk (@elonmusk) on X.com discussing fusion reactors, where he argues that the Sun is a superior free fusion reactor and criticizes Earth-based reactors as 'puny little reactors' and 'pet science projects.' The tweet is followed by two frames from a movie: the first shows an older man stating, 'Well, the sun's quite a bit further away than the reactors,' and the second shows a younger boy responding defiantly, 'I don't care how far away it is!' The meme humorously contrasts Musk's dismissive stance with a logical counterpoint (distance of the Sun) and a childish refusal to acknowledge it, implying Musk's argument ignores practicality.

Elon Musk's Fusion Reactor Tweet vs. Movie Scene Clapback

A meme combining a tweet from…