He Was Truly Ahead of His Time

About

He Was Truly Ahead of His Time refers to a series of three-panel exploitable images based on a webcomic by Tumblr artist Ronnie Raccoon. In the meme, characters critique the changing sentiments towards the artist Vincent Van Gogh and his work "Starry Night." The final image shows a meme or other humorous photograph from the internet, implying that in the future it will be considered high art.

Origin

On February 1st, 2015, Tumblr^[1] user Ronnie Raccoon published a three-panel comic entitled "Art." The piece features characters debating the merits of Vincent Van Gogh's "Starry Night" over time, particularly how when it was first painted, critics reacted negatively to the painting, and how in the present of 2015, the artist is regarded as "ahead of his time." The final panel features Amy the Hedgehog from the Sonic the Hedgehog video game series with someone inside her stomach (implied to be Sonic himself), implying that in the future vore illustrations will be considered high-art. Over the course of two years, the post (shown below) has received more than 17,000 notes.

Spread

The following month, on March 25th, FunnyJunk ^[2] user crackalacking posted the comic on the site, where it received more than 1,400 upvotes and 48,000 views in two and a half years.

The next day, user pedestrianx posted a template for the meme, removing the last image, and commented, "Show me some dank memes FJ." The user proceeded to post three variations of the comic all with different pictures in the third panel (shown below).

Two years later, on June 29th, 2017, the Facebook ^[3] LibertyMemesPage shared a variation of the meme. In this version, the third panel features a shirtless Alex Jones and two Pepe the Frogs with hearts in their eyes. Within four months, the post received more than 1,400 reactions, 280 shares and 70 comments.

In 2017, the comic also became popular on the /r/MemeEconomy subreddit, where it generated multiple threads about its value and potential popularity.^[4][5]

Various Examples

Search Interest

Not available.

External References