iPad Tip / Tip Screen

Submission 5,426

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

About

iPad Tip, also known as iPad Tipping, Tip Screen, The Barista Waiting for iPad Tip or The Cashier Waiting for iPad Tip, refers to an axiom about cashiers and baristas spinning around an iPad (or another tablet often used as a cash register) with a tipping interface to which the meme's creator leaves no tip due to the perception that the cashier didn't do enough to warrant tipping. The joke became prevalent on Twitter originally in 2018, becoming more notable in 2022 and 2023. The jokes were primarily used as captions for "staring" images, like Staring Animals and Sigma Stares, to portray the cashier's blank expression.

Origin

Starting in the late 2010s, companies like Square^[1] launched a new cash register interface that resembled a tablet or iPad. Square's products were integrated into many restaurants and stores in the years that followed, becoming commonplace in the 2020s.

On June 25th, 2018, Twitter^[2] user @jackdwagner tweeted the first discovered joke about leaving a tip on an iPad cash register, writing, "those ipad cash registers really have some balls asking me if I wanna add a 20% tip while buying a pack of cigs." The tweet received roughly 1,400 likes in five years (shown below).

Spread

On May 30th, 2019, Twitter^[3] user @rivbutcher tweeted a similar joke, reading, "Nothing like waiting behind someone flirting with a barista and then watching them select 'no tip' on the iPad," gaining roughly 11,000 likes in four years (shown below, left). On December 9th, 2020, Twitter^[4] user @maxhoma23 tweeted, "Tipping was a lot less awkward when there wasn’t a person holding an iPad that asked how much you’d like to tip them," gaining roughly 11,200 likes in two and a half years (shown below, right).

The concept became a larger meme in 2022, following a viral tweet sent by Twitter^[5] user @Bobby_Condon on April 1st, 2022, that gained roughly 305,300 likes in one year (shown below, left). Then, on July 19th, 2022, Twitter^[6] user @AkameG4Kill tweeted, "The cashier when I press 'no tip' after all they did was spin the iPad around," as the caption for Staring Donkey, gaining roughly 611,000 likes in 10 months (shown below, right).

The format of Twitter^[6] user @AkameG4Kill's tweet was soon exploited by others online as it was also reposted to platforms like Instagram.^[7] The meme's concept also gained criticism, evident in a viral tweet posted by Twitter^[8] user @SweatieAngle on September 28th, 2022, that gained roughly 15,600 likes in eight months (shown below).

Iterations of the meme continued to surface on Instagram^[9] and Reddit,^[10] among other platforms, going into early 2023.