About

If I Die, Don't You Cry. Just Look at the Sky and Say Goodbye is a copypasta typically used to caption images of dead characters from pop culture. It has also been used in emotional posts online.

Origin

The origin of the meme is unknown. The earliest available usage of the phrase comes from the Facebook account IfIDieDontCryJustLookAtTheSkyAndSayGoodbye, which launched on June 17th, 2013.^[1]

Spread

Over the next six years, the phrase continued to appear in various social media posts. For example, in 2015, We Heart It^[2] user @agustinalvt shared an image of a person holding a piece of paper with the phrase written on it. The post received more than 3,800 hearts in less than five years (shown below, left).

The following year, on February 20th, 2016, iFunny ^[3] user KloieKat shared an image with the phrase as a caption (shown below, right).

In 2019, the phrase became associated with an eight-panel image macro series. One of the earliest includes a version featuring all of the characters that died in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which was posted by Twitter ^[4] user @georlemou on August 17th, 2019.

The following year, the meme grew in usage with an eight-panel image macro featuring characters from Disney films that have died (shown below, left).

In June 2020, this version went viral on Reddit as users began posting variations that swapped out the last panel with absurd punchlines. For example, on June 8th, 2020, Redditor^[5] VanashinGlory posted a version that features the Geralt 'Fuck' meme in the final panel. The post received more than 45,000 points (89% upvoted) and 300 comments in less than one month (shown below, center). The following week, Redditor^[6] hihowareya1273 shared a variation with the What the Fuck is Oatmeal meme in the final panel. The post received more than 34,000 points (93% upvoted) and 290 comments in less than one week (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External references