I May Not Have a Brain, Gentlemen, But I Have an Idea

Submission 21,723

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About

I May Not Have a Brain, Gentlemen, But I Have an Idea refers to a scene from the 2009 movie Monsters vs. Aliens where B.O.B., looking towards the camera, says, "I may not have a brain, gentlemen, but I have an idea." The scene was first used as a reaction image macro on Reddit in 2019 and became an increasingly popular meme in the 2020s, particularly as a video reaction clip on TikTok in 2023 used to describe doing something stupid.

Origin

In 2009, the animated film Monsters vs. Aliens was released. In one scene of the film, B.O.B. gets an idea for a plan, saying, "I may not have a brain, gentlemen, but I have an idea" (shown below).

The earliest known meme to reference the scene was posted to /r/shittyrainbow6^[1] on September 20th, 2019, garnering over 550 upvotes in four years (shown below, left). The meme continued to spread as an image macro over the following years. On August 13th, 2021, X^[2] user @sephiramy posted a meme using the image, garnering over 840 likes in two years (shown below, right).

Spread

The clip began increasingly popular in video memes throughout the 2020s. On January 9th, 2023, YouTuber^[3] Immersed posted a meme using the clip that gained over 20,000 views in seven months (shown below).

On March 9th, TikToker^[4] @crynx59 posted a meme using the clip that gained over 1.8 million views in five months (shown below, left). On April 12th, TikToker^[5] @thetwosmoker posted a meme using the video's audio that gained over 420,000 views in four months (shown below, right).

On June 22nd, TikToker^[6] @antojos_de_las_12_ posted a video using the meme to react to the Mileena glory hole animation, garnering over 1.1 million views in two months (shown below).