I Don't Like X, I Love It!

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

About

I Don't Like X, I Love It! is an exploitable meme taken from the 2007 Pixar film Ratatouille. The template involves the meme creator following the phrasal template "I don't like X, I love it," replacing the noun to read what the character Anton Ego doesn't "like" but rather "loves." It first saw usage as a meme in 2019 on Reddit, spreading to other platforms over the following years. It's primarily used by fandoms to demonstrate their love of various IPs.

Origin

The meme originates from a scene in the movie Ratatouille where the character Anton Ego first introduces himself to one of the primary characters, Linguini. Anton confronts Linguini in the clip stating, "You're slow for someone in the fast lane," to which Linguini replies, "And you're thin for someone who likes food!" Anton is angered by the response and retorts, "I don't like food, I love it! If I don't love it, I don't swallow!" A three-minute clip from this introduction scene was uploaded to YouTube on December 10th, 2008, by the channel zelbinion69, who over the course of 14 years has received roughly 2.9 million views (shown below).

Although the scene had been referenced in memes on Funnyjunk ^[1] as early as March 2012, it wasn't until 2018 that the template saw usage. On July 15th, 2018, Twitter^[2] user nooffensebrah posted the first known usage, earning two likes over four years for replacing the word "food" with "dick" (shown below).

Spread

On March 16th, 2019, Know Your Meme user roberthaha used the template in their own original content,^[3] earning over 180 upvotes in three years (shown below, left). On September 10th, 2019, Redditor AlphaBetaEd posted the first known use of the template to /r/PrequelMemes,^[4] earning roughly 14,400 upvotes over the course of three years (shown below, right). This aforementioned meme notably spread the three-panel template into mainstream attention.

Going into 2020, more meme creators exploited the template across platforms. For instance, on June 18th, 2020, Twitter^[5] user AnonBunnyArt tweeted a meme about Rule 34 artists, earning roughly 32,700 likes over the course of two years (shown below, left). On November 22nd, 2020, Redditor lordvolkan posted a version that referenced the manga Berserk in /r/berserklejerk,^[6] earning roughly 4,100 upvotes over the course of a year and a half (shown below, right).