I’m On a Dinner Date What Do I Say He’s So Cute

Submission 8,451

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

About

I’m On a Dinner Date What Do I Say He’s So Cute refers to a series of exploitable image macros where the title caption is used, often formatted as a Snapchat text banner, in reference to an image of someone or something cute or ironically cute sitting at a table eating. The original meme, depicting an image of a cat, was posted to Twitter in August 2017 and inspired numerous memes using the catchphrase with other characters photoshopped in place of the cat over the following years.

Origin

On August 6th, 2017, Twitter^[1] user @princessofwifi posted a photo of a cat sitting across the table from her, a plate of spaghetti and a glass of wine in front of each of them, writing, "I'm on a dinner date what do I say he's so cute and I'm so nervous," garnering over 1,400 likes and 500 retweets in five years (shown below). On May 19th, 2018, a Redditor posted a new meme using the caption over an image of a long Furby to /r/wholesomememes.^[2] This is the earliest known variation of the meme.

Spread

On January 27th, 2019, the Redditor maut-ka-nanga-nach posted a variation of the meme to /r/memes^[3] using the caption as a Snapchat banner over another image of a cat, garnering over 76,000 upvotes in three years (shown below). The meme was reposted to the 9GAG Facebook^[4] page on February 4th, garnering over 30,000 reactions and 4,500 shares in the same rough span of time.

The meme became increasingly popular over the following years, particularly on Instagram. On July 27th, 2021, Instagram^[5] user bingus.forever posted a Bingus edit of the meme originally by Instagram^[11] user bingus,kink, garnering over 10,000 likes in a year (shown below, left). On August 18th, Instagram^[6] page yourfrienddoge posted a Doge version of the meme, garnering over 3,500 likes in a year (shown below, right).

On October 7th, Redditor Whiteunder40 posted a version of the meme to /r/Hololive^[7] using the character Hoshimachi Suisei, garnering over 8,600 upvotes in 10 months (shown below). On October 21st, Instagram^[8] user clean_oof_memes posted a version of the meme using the Mike Wazowski-Sulley Face Swap meme, garnering over 25,000 likes in the same span of time.

On March 31st, 2022, Instagram^[9] user hugoandursula posted an image of a dog holding a tray, garnering over 11,000 likes in five months. On the same date, Instagram^[10] user doggosdoingthings used the image in a version of the meme, garnering over 40,000 likes in the same span of time (shown below).