BMW Behind Me / BMW Drivers Tailgating

Submission 1,928

About

BMW Behind Me or BMW Drivers Tailgating refers to a series of memes based on the stereotype that BMW drivers and owners tend to follow the car ahead of them at a very close distance and pressure them to either increase speed or let them pass (aka "Tailgating"). The meme first achieved virality in mid-July 2020 following a viral post and saw further spread in the following years, usually via Object Labeling memes.

Origin

On November 16th, 2019, Redditor Coopdon101 posted an object-labeling meme about BMW drivers tailgating even when someone is driving at the speed limit. The post (shown below, left) received over 22,000 upvotes in the /r/memes^[1] subreddit in four years.

On January 12th, 2020, meme account Shitheadsteve copied the joke in a Yoda Balloon meme that received over 520 reactions and 130 shares on Facebook^[2] in four years (shown below, right).

On July 23rd, 2020, Redditor MayMay-2 posted a Star Trek meme object-labeled with the joke. The post went viral and garnered over 105,000 upvotes in the /r/dankmemes^[3] subreddit prior to its deletion (shown below).

Spread

In late July 2020, the image was widely circulated online, including a July 23rd, 2020, repost by Tumblr^[4] meme account catchymemes that inspired multiple edits^[5]^[6] of the meme in the following days (examples shown below), with the thread garnering over 82,300 likes and reblogs in four years.

The jokes saw further spread on Reddit and other sites in the following years, inspiring object-labeling memes and later TikToks. Notably, on January 8th, 2022, Redditor thiccnuthair posted a version that received over 18,000 upvotes in the /r/memes^[7] subreddit in two years (shown below). On January 11th, X^[8] / Twitter user @PresidentToguro reposted the meme, garnering over 21,000 reposts and 198,000 likes in two years.

In the second half of 2022, TikToker @jmshkm posted multiple Chad Driver POV viral memes about BMW drivers tailgating. For example, on June 12th, 2022, @jmshkm posted a meme that garnered over 2.7 million views and 493,000 likes on TikTok^[9] in two years (shown below, right).

The joke maintained its popularity as source material for memes through 2023 and 2024.