Where Did The 'Stop Doing Math' Meme Originate? Ironic Infographics Warning Against Higher Education Explained

Hatred for math may not be encoded into every 5th grader's mind, but even the most astute of pure math graduate students face their share of mental de-realizing breaks in the midst of their degrees. For many who pivot to such an anti-math stance later in their life, the STOP DOING MATH meme captures the very essence of why the subject feels overly complex and still underutilized in day-to-day life.

And it doesn't stop at math; newer variations of the meme have diversified the subjects being rallied against in this infographic-style meme format, from logic to soil studies to physics. Here's where this particular meme, one that signs off by insisting that "they" have "played us all for fools," originated.

Where Does The 'Stop Doing Math' Meme Come From?

On April 17th, 2020, at the height of the COVID-19 lockdown, mem creator Welcome To My Meme Page posted an anti-math graphic to their Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter (X) pages simultaneously. It's unclear if the posts were born out of frustration for take-home math assignments, but the infographic is pretty clear on what it advocates for.

The reasons listed for why people should stop doing math include the idea that "numbers were not supposed to be given names," and that "years of counting" had led to no "real-world use found for counting higher than your fingers."

The graphics used in the meme are, in order from left to right, the absolute value of the complex Gamma function, a mesh plot of |arctan(z^(-5))|, a compound of five cubes, and the Riemann surface for the function f(z) = √z. It is unclear if these symbols add further weight to the theory that the infographic was drawn up by a frustrated math student, as they may well have been drawn up by a deranged individual with access to a calculator.

How Did The 'STOP DOING MATH' Meme Spread?

The meme was reposted to various websites frequented by nerds, including Reddit, before YouTuber Gianni Matragrano decided to post a dramatic, comedic reading of the video to YouTube.

What Were Some Variations Of The 'STOP DOING MATH' Meme?

The meme clearly struck a nerve with other STEM majors, as variations on the theme appeared across the internet nearly simultaneously the summer of 2020. FunnyJunk user cheshirethejack posted an infographic urging people to "STOP USING LOGIC," the mathematical kind, for a deluge of reasons.

More variations of the infographic appeared online that summer, including a poster that read, "STOP DOING ENGINEERING," and another that warned against "DOING P-CHEM." Each poster with a line insisting that they had "played us for absolute fools."

What Are Some More Examples Of 'STOP DOING MATH' Memes?

For the full history of the STOP DOING MATH meme, be sure to check out Know Your Meme's encyclopedia entry for more information.