Looks Like They Couldn't Handle the Neutron Style

About

Looks Like They Couldn't Handle the Neutron Style, also known as Looks Like She Couldn't Handle the Neutron Style, is a reaction image depicting cartoon character Jimmy Neutron from the Nickelodeon show The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius holding a broken skateboard while talking to Nick Dean. It’s typically used as a reaction image to express sarcastic coolness and swagger about an above caption or image in the top panel, but the quote can also be used without the still as a standalone catchphrase and saying.

Origin

The original image used in the meme is a still taken from the TV series, specifically the 12th episode in the second season called "Send in the Clones,” which aired on March 9th, 2004. In the episode, Jimmy plans to travel to space to collect some ice crystals in order to make the perfect freeze ray, but before he leaves, his mother Judy stops him and says that he needs to do chores. With a list of various chores to complete, Goddard comes up with the idea to clone Jimmy and instead have these copies do the chores for him while he finishes collecting the crystals. Jimmy agrees to this plan and creates six different clones from his cloning machine, each with their own unique traits. The copies include a sunglasses-clad “Cool Jimmy,” a devil-haired “Evil Jimmy,” a positive “Happy Jimmy,” a negative “Gloomy Jimmy,” a French-accented “Romance Jimmy” and a witty “Funny Jimmy.”

The meme is taken from a scene in the episode (seen below) where Cool Jimmy is out doing his assigned chore. Along the way, he bumps into Nick Dean and requests a joyride on his skateboard. Cool Jimmy then performs various tricks on the board, impressing Nick, until he breaks it and enrages him. During this clip, Nick says “Whoa, check it out! Neutron has the moves!” But when he snaps the board in half, Cool Jimmy walks up to him and utters the quote “Well, how 'bout next time you get a board that can handle the Neutron style? Later, Nick-O-Rama.”

The first instance this image and caption appear online dates back to July 7th, 2018, when an album of various examples was uploaded to Imgur^[1] by Redditor^[2] JafsZero who then posted one of their memes (shown below) to the r/MemeEconomy and r/dankmemes subs shortly after.

Spread

The format primarily spread on Reddit initially as several users adopted the style and created memes of their own. One such example was posted by Redditor^[3] paolonoci on November 19th, 2018, to the r/dankmemes sub where it received over 50,000 upvotes and 237 comments.

It then crossed over to Twitter where it was used as a simple reaction image to tweets as replies in a sarcastic context. In a tweet^[4] from the account of musician/DJ Eliminate depicting a text conversation, user Alan Michael replied with the image (seen below) and received 19 likes.

An entry was then added to Urban Dictionary^[5] for “Neutron Style” by user #1 Shrek Daddy [Apparently] on October 30th, 2019. The definition for this entry is “Otherwise known as ‘The Neutron Style,’ this is any instance in which one's sheer Big Dick Energy is so much that a mere human mortal cannot handle it.”

The meme continued to primarily see use on Reddit throughout 2019 in a number of different subs. One of these examples (shown below) was uploaded by Redditor^[6] Thunderc01 on January 29th, 2019, to the r/fakehistoryporn sub, where it was upvoted over 11,000 times and gifted three Reddit awards.

Various Examples

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External References