About

Is Shakespeare Really Dead? refers to an image macro and reaction image of the famous English poet and playwright William Shakespeare with a red arrow pointing at him and a bottom caption implying that he might not be dead. The image and its catchphrase spread memetically, notably in 2025, to joke about surprisingly good writing in popular media, hinting that whoever wrote the contemporary work is a modern Shakespeare or Shakespeare himself. Its use is reminiscent of the Gunna Writing Fire and Hold Up!! His Writing Is This Fire??? memes.

The image's origin is currently unknown, but it first surfaced in August 2025 and spread en masse on TikTok and Twitter / X, largely in comment sections. Additionally, the catchphrase is seemingly based on the short, semi-autobiographical work Is Shakespeare Dead? by American writer Mark Twain, written in 1909.

Origin

On August 28th, 2025, Tenor^[1] user Notfoundatm shared an image macro as a GIF, showing late playwright William Shakespeare with an arrow pointing at him and a bottom caption, in all caps yellow text, reading, "Is Shakespeare really dead?" The post is currently the first known upload of the image online.

Spread

In the following months, the image spread as a sticker in TikTok comment sections, like in the comments of a video from TikToker^[2] @joeyyhimself on September 13th, 2025.

During the same timeframe, the image had minor spread on Reddit, like in a post from Redditor carrot_eater_inside to the /r/FilosofiaBAR^[3] subreddit on September 10th.

On September 25th, 2025, TikToker^[4] @purple.scar1 posted a video slideshow meme, which used several reaction images often used to represent writing, including Blackbeard Writing and a portrait of Shakespeare, with text overlay reading, "How I feel writing 'however' in my essay," and a description reading, "Is Shakespeare really dead?" Over three months, the video gained over 71,300 likes.

On September 30th, TikToker^[5] @bornfromrevenge1 shared a video using a Red Circle Perpetrators format, highlighting a message being sent on someone else's phone, highlighted to represent the "Is Shakespeare Really Dead?" meme. The video's caption also used the term I'm Crine. Over three months, the video received over 21,400 likes.

The meme continued on TikTok in December 2025, evident in a video shared by TikToker^[6] @theoneandonlysushi1 on December 1st, showing sent Snapchat messages with a text overlay caption reading, "Is Shakespeare really dead?" Over 17 days, the video received over 84,700 likes.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References