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What's Up With 'Wizardposting'? 'I Cast' And 'Pondering My Orb' Memes Explained
Memes featuring bearded, robed and staff-wielding wizards have been on the uptick in recent years thanks to kids somehow getting their hands on a large collection of the work of illustrator David B Mattingly. Wizardposting, as it is now called, is a genre of memes that juxtaposes a fantasy illustration showing a wizard peering over a cauldron or scribbling in a book with a quill with text that points to a rather modern proclivity.
Thus a bearded old wizard stirring a bubbling cauldron is interpreted as "making soup with the boys," just as a wizard writing on heavy parchment is now "typing in the Notes App." These one-off Whisper App Text memes are often interspersed with more instantly recognizable ones, like Pondering My Orb or I Cast Manual Breathing.. Here's how the Wizardposting trend of the early 2020s took off.
Where Did Wizardposting Memes Originate, And What Does It Mean To Be 'Pondering My Orb'?
"Wizardposting" memes largely draw on the work of American illustrator David B Mattingly, who is known for his work in the comic book industry as well as Hollywood. Mattingly drew a lot of wizard art in his career, often depicting wizened old men in robes in contrast with more modern settings.
But the trend did not entirely begin built off of Mattingly's work; the earliest known viral meme in this theme was "Pondering my Orb," a Twitter trend kicked off by @thatsgoodweb in 2021. The meme features work by illustrator Angus Mcbride.
More fantasy wizard art began making the rounds online in 2022, with many people picking up Mattingly's work and reinterpreting it. In May 2022, @70sscifi tweeted two of Mattingly's illustrations, one showing a wizard riding the subway and the other showing him sitting his kitchen (aptly named "The Subway Wizard" and "The Wizard In The Kitchen" respectively). The post was captioned, "Late-night gas station run, before and after."
How Did Wizardposting Gain Traction Online?
Later in 2022, TikToker @mimofrl made a "slideshow" featuring various wizarding illustrations made by Mattingly and others. The first image in the slideshow had an algospeak caption that read, "the typa $hit i been on." The post gained virality and inspired a slew of similar memes on TikTok, many of which center around wizards smoking "Za" or engaging in other teenage proclivities.
By the end of 2022, Wizardposting memes had solidified into a definite genre, where a fantasy wizard illustration is paired with a confessional text style, such as the Whisper font or Instagram sans serif. Instagram pages @arcane_scribe and @crazylipzig made viral posts in the genre on Instagram toward the end of 2022.
Where Did The 'I Cast' Meme Begin?
Memes combining wizard imagery with the phrase "I cast" can be traced back to sites like Tumblr from back in 2017, but only really took off online in early 2024. These images combine the visual of a solemn wizard, often with his wand or staff held out or a smokey haze emanating from his fingers, with the phrase "I cast." The wizard is then shown to cast an inane spell, perhaps a cuss word or a banal irritant like "manual breathing."
For the full history of Wizardposting, be sure to check out Know Your Meme's encyclopedia entry for more information.