Kick Down the Stairs ASCII Art

Submission 10,520

Part of a series on ASCII Art. [View Related Entries]

About

Kick Down the Stairs ASCII Art is a series of ASCII art designs made to look as though a stick figure kicking another stick figure down a flight of stairs. The stick figures are generally given opposing labels for humorous effect.

Origin

The earliest known version of the formation was posted on March 2nd, 2014 by Twitter ^[1] user @wellyngtonesco. In this version, the kicker is labeled "Rússia" and the victim is labeled "Ucrânia." The post (shown below) received more than 5 retweets and 5 likes in four years.

Precursor

Prior to the popularity of the Kick Down the Stairs meme people online posted a version in which a stick figure is kicked off of a cliff. This variation was originally posted on June 30th, 2009 by Twitter^[2] user @SEN_1739 (shown below).

Spread

On April 20th, 2014, Twitter^[3] user @fluxes tweeted a version in which the kicker is labeled "toxic by britney spears" and the victim is labeled "the entire beatles discography." The post (shown below, left) received more than 680 retweets and 1,800 likes.

Following the post, more people began labeling the design various things for humorous effect. On April 23rd, Twitter^[4] user @chrisplug tweeted a version in which the kicker is labeled "8 bowls of cereal before bed" and the victim is labeled "my summer body." The post (shown below, center) received more than750 retweets and 3,000 likes in two days.

The following day, fast food restaurant Carl's Jr.'s Twitter account tweeted^[5] a version. Here, the kicker is labeled "me" and the victim is labeled "Idk man we just sell burgers these memes are getting awfully violent." The post (shown below, right) received more than 460 retweets and 2,000 likes.

That day, Twitter^[6] user @AndrewNadeau0 made a version that combined this meme with the In This House ASCII art meme. The post (shown below) received more than 840 retweets and 3,330 likes in 24 hours.

On April 25th, Twitter^[7] published a Moments page about the popularity of the meme.