It Defines Who I Am

Submission 41,011

Part of a series on The Incredibles. [View Related Entries]

About

“It Defines Who I Am” is a memorable quote uttered by the character Dash (voiced by Spencer Fox) in the 2018 animated superhero film The Incredibles 2. Online, a screen-capture from the scene has been used in image macros featuring the quote as a punchline to various jokes about one's personal interests.

Origin

On February 14th, 2018, the trailer for the Pixar film The Incredibles 2 was posted on YouTube. ^[1] In the trailer, the character Dash tells his superhero parents that he "wants to fight bad guys[…]it defines who I am" (shown below). The line parodies a memorable quote from the 2005 superhero film Batman Begins in which Batman says, "It's not who I am underneath, but what I do that defines me."^[2]

The following day, Redditor ^[3] Nekoromantic posted a thread in the /r/IncrediblesMemes called "When someone asks if I'm going to see Incredibles 2 on opening night" and a screen-capture of the moment from the trailer with the subtitles "It defines who I am." The post (shown below) received more than 170 points (97% upvoted) in 24 hours.

Spread

That day, Imgur ^[4] user kingofnope posted an image of the screen-capture with FCC Chairman Ajit Pai's face photoshopped over Dash's. The image is captioned with "When people ask why you want to limit the greatest tool for communications mankind has ever seen," referencing the Pai-led repeal of net neutrality. The post (shown below, left) received more than 850 views in 24 hours.

Additionally, that day, Redditor^[5] X3nagos posted in the /r/MemeEconomy subreddit a variation of the meme using the same text format as the Ajit Pai variant. This one has Dash's face visible and the caption "when some asks why I beat my meat every night at 3AM." The post (shown below, center) received more than 24,000 points (86% upvoted) and 160 comments in 24 hours. The same user also published the meme in the /r/dankmemes ^[6] subreddit, where it received more than 6,900 points (96% upvoted) and 75 comments in 24 hours.

Following that post, users in /r/dankmemes started posting numerous variations of the image macro (example below, right).