George Shoots Lennie

About

George Shoots Lennie refers to a scene from the 1937 John Steinbeck novella Of Mice and Men where George shoots his oblivious friend Lennie in the back of the head after he accidentally murders a woman. Artwork depicting the scene, typically showing George with the gun to Lennie's head moments before shooting, became the subject of memes including photoshops, typically a cartoon image that first appeared online around 2012 as an exploitable image macro.

Origin

In 1937, John Steinbeck published his novella Of Mice and Men, a story about two ranch workers and friends, Lennie and George, who work odd jobs in California. Despite being uneducated, George is intelligent while Lennie is mentally disabled as well as large, strong and unable to control his strength, with George seen as Lennie's protector in the book. Lennie loves rabbits and George eases Lennie's mind throughout the story with a tale about their future that features a farm where rabbits run free.

Near the end of the novella, Lennie accidentally kills a woman at the ranch they're working on who lets him stroke her hair after she panics at the strength of his strokes, causing him to break her neck. The ranch hands send a lynch mob after Lennie and call the police. Before they can get to him, George finds Lennie at their former camping spot. He tells Lennie the story about the rabbits until he hears the lynch mob arriving, then shoots Lennie in the back of the head, completely oblivious. Multiple works of art have been made depicting this scene, which is praised for its emotional weight. It was also depicted in the 1992 film adaptation by Gary Sinise (shown below).

On June 9th, 2012, a FunnyJunk^[1] user posted a cartoon showing a distressed George with a gun to an oblivious Lennie's head, gaining over 2,600 thumbs-ups in nine years (shown below). This is the earliest known upload of the image online. It is unknown who the artist is.

Spread

The cartoon posted in mid-2012 became the subject of memes over the following years, often photoshopping it to change the heads of each character and adding text to alter the context. One of the most viral photoshops^[2] shows Lennie as Pepe the Frog. In 2019, the image saw an increase in use as an object-labeling format. For example, on April 5th, 2019, Redditor CelestialCheeze posted a version of the image to /r/dankmemes,^[3] gaining over 10,200 upvotes in two years (shown below, left). On September 16th, Redditor hermanxyz posted a version to /r/vibecheck,^[4] gaining over 700 upvotes in a similar span of time (shown below, right).

On July 18th, 2021, Redditor Hookshot7 posted a version to /r/me_irl^[5] about having cereal in the bowl but no milk, gaining over 17,300 upvotes in six months (shown below).

On October 19th, iFunny^[6] user Lonethefox posted a version about Minecraft gaining over 27,300 smiles in three months (shown below, left). On January 2nd, 2022, Instagram^[7] user cyrus.snake posted a version referencing the Metaverse and NFTs, gaining over 2,600 likes in under a day (shown below, right).

Template

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References