Excuse Me, He Asked for No Pickles

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About

Excuse Me, He Asked for No Pickles, originally misspelled as Excuse Me, He Ask For No Pickles, refers to a series of redraw and parody memes in which one person is timidly looking out from behind another's back, as if a child hiding behind a mother while she complains about the order. Starting in early April 2020, the meme format gained significant popularity on Twitter.

Origin

On January 25th, 2020, Beyoncé and Jay-Z attended Roc Nation's The Brunch celebration in Los Angeles. On the same day, a photograph of the couple in which Jay Z stood behind Beyonce, looking out from behind her shoulder, was posted by numerous outlets, including E! News^[1] and Daily Mail^[2] (shown below, left).

On January 26th, 2020, Twitter^[3] user @Shaydakisses posted the photograph writing, "He said he wanted sweet potato fries NOT regular potato fries," with the tweet gaining over 11,100 retweets and 48,200 likes in four months (shown below, center). On the same day, Twitter^[4] user @skinny_que posted a similar joke, writing, “EXCUSE ME! He ask for no pickles." The tweet received over 140 retweets and 400 likes in the same period (shown below, right).

Spread

On April 2nd, 2020, Twitter^[5] user @kaylamdimarco posted a screenshot of @skinny_que's tweet, gaining over 36,600 retweets and 205,100 likes. Starting on April 3rd, users on Twitter started posting photographs of people standing in similar poses. On that day, K-pop stan account @tyrubyjane posted^[6] the earliest such tweet (shown below, left). On the same day, K-pop stan account @hotephoshi posted^[7] the earliest viral derivative which received over 490 retweets and 1,700 likes (shown below, center). On April 4th, Twitter^[8] user @bonsaisonly posted the earliest known redraw based on the photograph, gaining 60 retweets and 210 likes (shown below, right).

Starting in early April 2020, the trend received further spread both in parodies and redraws on Twitter. For example, on April 11th, 2020, Twitter^[9] artist @WeegeeWuvver posted a Persona 5 redraw which received over 2,100 retweets and 12,300 likes in one month. On May 17th, 2020, Twitter^[10] user @amorizel posted a screenshot from the Final Fantasy VII Remake accompanied by the caption which received over 12,300 retweets and 46,200 likes in one week, prompting a surge in popularity of the trend.