For Really Big Mistakes

Submission 26,424

About

For Really Big Mistakes refers to an exploitable image of a large eraser with the words "for really big mistakes" printed on it erasing another image. The meme expresses the point of view that the "mistake" is something worthy of ridicule and removal.

Origin

The "For Really Big Mistakes" eraser is a novelty eraser made by Toysmith. The images used for the basic meme template can be found on the Amazon product page^[1] (shown below, left) and the eBay product page^[2] (shown below, right).

One of the earliest iterations of the two pictures as a meme came from Funnyism user Gasolineflavoredgum. On May 31st, 2015, Gasolineflavoredgum posted a picture of the eraser being used on a picture of a baby (shown below).^[6]

Spread

On February 13th, 2016, Tumblr user yanderechild posted a version of the meme with the word "Anime" as the image being erased (shown below).^[6] Within 15 months, the post has received more than 178,000 notes.

The following month, on March 20th, Redditor shooterboss posted a variation (shown below, left), in which the word "capitalism" is the mistake, to the subreddit /r/me_irl, garnering more than 1,200 points (91% upvoted) and 80 comments.^[8] Several months later, on September 6th, Tumblr user mimosataylor posted a variation with the text "2016" is the mistake (shown below, right). The post received more than 125,200 notes.^[7]