About

I Wish to Be Irresistible to Men, also known as the Wishing Well, is a meme format based on a cartoon by George Trosley in which a woman makes a wish to become irresistible to men at a wishing well, after which she immediately turns into a muscle car. In memes, the car is replaced with various other objects that men might find impossible to resist.

Origin

The two-panel cartoon was created by comic artist George Trosley on an unknown date prior to 2012, and likely before 2000. In the cartoon, a woman throws a dollar into a wishing well and makes a wish of becoming impossible for men to resist, after which she immediately turns into a muscle car.

While the original black-and-white version of the cartoon (shown below, left) was circulated online since 2013,^[1] the earliest colored version of the cartoon was reposted on Blogspot^[2] on January 1st, 2012. Starting in 2014, another version, redrawn and colored, was widely shared on Facebook and humor websites^[3] (shown below, right).

Earliest found memes replacing the object the woman turns into were posted in 2015 on Facebook and Reddit. For example, on November 22nd, Redditor riverboat posted a meme that gained over 50 upvotes in /r/guitarcirclejerk^[4] in seven years (shown below, left). On January 1st, 2017, Tumblr^[5] user charsdefrance posted a meme that gained over 620 likes and reblogs in one five years (shown below, right).

Spread

On October 2nd, 2016, ShitPostBot5000^[6] user squish added a meme template based on the comic. The template gained a rating score of 21 on the site in six years.

The format did not see massive popularity until June 13th, 2018, when an unknown Redditor posted a Waluigi meme based on it to the /r/dankmemes^[7] subreddit, where it gained over 24,600 upvotes (shown below, left). On June 17th, Redditor^[8] Chip_Dipsson posted a Boar Vessel meme based on the format that gained over 70 upvotes in /r/BoarVesselMemes (shown below, right).

In November 2019, the format achieved massive popularity in the /r/okbuddyretard subreddit.^[9][10]

The format maintained its popularity online in the early 2020s, being used as an exploitable and inspiring redraws.

Various Examples

Templates

Search Interest

External References