I Lied, I Don't Have Netflix

Submission 32,539

Part of a series on There Is No Meme / I Lied to You, Take Off Your Clothes. [View Related Entries]

About

I Lied, I Don't Have Netflix is an exploitable POV meme showing a cartoon girl pointing a gun at the meme's viewer who lied to them about having Netflix and is instead forcing them to do something other than Netflix and Chill. The meme is a variant of the There Is No Meme / I Lied to You, Take Off Your Clothes trend, which predominantly used images of Doge and Cheems. The "I Don't Have Netflix" template was first shared on Tumblr in early 2020. A year later, the female character Mote was added to the template by a Twitter user.

Origin

Starting in July 2019, the There Is No Meme / I Lied to You, Take Off Your Clothes trend started based on Ironic Doge Memes. The earliest known example of the "There Is No Meme, Take Off Your Clothes" trend was posted by Instagram ^[1] user realstiffy on July 22nd, 2019, including within it the character Beanos (shown below, left). On August 24th, 2019, the Instagram^[2] account nirnposting posted a meme using an evil, red Doge, having the top caption read, "I Lied. I Don't Have Netflix." The post received roughly 1,400 likes in two years and is the first known example of the "Netflix" snowclone (shown below, right).

The "Netflix" variant was used by more meme creators soon after. For instance, on September 13th, 2019, Redditor iGodzilla_x posted a deep fried, Mariah Carey meme to /r/dankmemes,^[3] earning over 130 upvotes in three years (shown below, left). On March 9th, 2020, Tumblr^[4] user nerviovago posted a version that showed Cheems pointing a gun to the viewer with top and bottom captions reading, "I lied, I don't have netflix / Take off your shoes, we're gonna listen to Russian numbers stations on shortwave radio." Over the course of two years, the meme received roughly 25,200 notes (shown below, right).

On December 23rd, 2021, Twitter user whoismonday created a version that inserted their own character named Mote^[5] into the aforementioned Cheems meme (shown below). However, whoismonday deleted the tweet soon after it went viral. Despite its deletion, evidence of it can be seen in a thread^[6] created by whoismonday on December 23rd about their reasoning for deleting it.

Spread

On December 23rd, 2021, the Instagram^[7] account sapphictslurmemes exploited whoismonday's meme, inserting images of music-producing equipment and joking about listening to their unfinished EP instead of Netflix. Over the course of six months, the meme received roughly 1,500 likes (shown below, left). Whoismonday's meme was also reposted by Instagram^[8] page idontreadtheory on December 23rd, where it earned roughly 6,600 likes. Inspired by the repost, on December 24th, Instagram^[9] page sparkle_fucked created a new iteration, earning over 580 likes in six months (shown below, right).

On December 27th, 2021, Redditor Piromysl reposted whoismonday's meme to /r/dankmemes^[10] where it earned roughly 56,000 upvotes in six months. On December 31st, 2021, the Instagram^[11] account evangelion_memes re-edited it to reference Neon Genesis Evangelion, earning roughly 411,200 likes in six months (shown below, left). Going into 2022, the meme continued to be remixed across platforms. For instance, on May 23rd, 2021, a Mug Root Beer meme made by Twitter^[12] user YKANEVIN was reposted by Twitter^[13] LeftyCatDad, where it earned roughly 56,400 likes in two days (shown below, right).

The aforementioned Mug Root Beer iteration even prompted a response from Twitter^[14] user whoismonday who previously denounced the spread of their meme.