About

Increase Phone Brightness is a series of image macros featuring a black image that, when the brightness on one's phone or desktop computer is increased, reveals a hidden image, similar to Zoom In.

Origin

The earliest known usage of the meme was posted in the /r/dankmemes subreddit on September 27th, 2018 by Redditor IamVig99 (shown below).^[1] The image features the text "Increase phone brightness," and when the prompt is followed, the image reveals a photograph of a moth and the text "ohhh yess." The post received more than 48,000 points (90% upvoted) and 600 comments in 24 hours.

Spread

That day, Redditors began posting variations of the meme. For example, Redditor^[2] SpudMqn posted a meta version of the meme, asking readsers to "decrease phone brightness" (shown below, left).

On September 28th, Redditor^[3] idfcZ posted the original meme in the /r/MemeEconomy. The post received more than 17,000 points (89% upvoted) and 1,700 comments in 24 hours.

That day, Redditor^[4] Flare231645 posted a version featuring the Skull Trumpet (shown below, center). The post received more than 800 points (94% upvoted) and 45 comments in 24 hours.

Variations continued to appear throughout the day (example below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References