Cameraman Never Dies

Submission 9,779

Part of a series on Catchphrases. [View Related Entries]

About

Cameraman Never Dies and Cameraman Always Survives are catchphrases revolved around a cliché commonly found in memes and comments that state the person behind the camera in viral videos and films always survives, no matter what kind of disastrous events take place. An additional part of the cliché is arguing that the cameraman is the most powerful being in the universe, able to withstand any kind of damage and keep up in speed with any person or object. Based on the survivorship bias, the cliché first achieved virality on Reddit in 2020, spreading over the following years.

Origin

Memes about cameraman being extremely powerful and impervious to any damage stem from jokes about the camera crew in survival skills reality television series such as Running Wild with Bear Grylls and Man vs. Wild. On July 17th, 2014, Redditor DogandCaleb posted the earliest known viral meme exploring the joke, a But That's None of My Business meme that received over 19,400 upvotes in /r/AdviceAnimals^[1] nine years (shown below).

The cliché saw further development as it was repeatedly brought up in the /r/Showerthoughts subreddit, eventually developing from posts about cameramen in survival reality shows to cameramen never dying in horror films and viral videos. For example, on October 17th, 2016, Redditor e-JackOlantern made a post that gained over 3,800 upvotes in the subreddit^[2] in seven years (shown below, left). On November 12th, 2018, Redditor^[3] khrodh made a post that received over 1,100 upvotes in five years (shown below, right).

On April 7th and October 6th, 2019, Redditors bblackwalker and EskildDood made posts about cameramen always surviving that received 15 and over 760 upvotes, respectively, in the /r/Showerthoughts^[4]^[5] subreddit in four years (shown below, left and right).

Spread

On May 30th, 2020, Redditor notkhaps posted the earliest discovered meme about cameramen being extremely powerful. The meme, posted in the /r/dankmemes^[6] subreddit, gained over 8,800 upvotes in four years (shown below).

The cliché achieved peak popularity on Reddit in the first half of 2021 as it became a recurring subject of memes in /r/dankmemes and /r/memes. For example, on February 19th, 2021, Redditor Redreddituser3000 posted a SpongeBob Sees Flying Dutchman meme that received over 31,300 upvotes in /r/memes^[7] three years (shown below, left).

Additionally, the phrases "cameraman never dies" and "cameraman always survives" became cliché in comments under incident and disaster videos on YouTube, with this trend also finding reflection in memes.