Looks Like They Have Surpassed Us a Long Time Ago

Submission 13,446

About

Looks Like They Have Surpassed Us a Long Time Ago is an exploitable image macro series featuring a comic in which a group of extraterrestrials discuss initiating contact with humanity.

Origin

On August 4th, 2014, ZBrushCentral Forums^[1] user Astroforest submitted a post titled "Extraterrestrial entity," featuring a digital illustration of three extraterrestrials created using the ZBrush digital sculpting software (shown below).

Spread

On January 22nd, 2018, Redditor Alexei17 submitted a comic in which the aliens discuss contacting humanity on Earth, concluding that humans "surpassed" the aliens "long ago" after viewing a screenshot of the game Minecraft (shown below). Within four months, the post gained over 1,800 points (97% upvoted) on /r/MemeEconomy.^[3] The following day, Redditor eegras posted a PC Master Race version of the image to /r/pcmasterrace,^[2] where it garnered upwards of 16,300 points (86% upvoted) and 380 comments over the same time frame (shown below, right).

That same day, Redditor Ascolon posted an edit of the exploitable featuring a photograph of two urinals to /r/dankmemes,^[4] where it received more than 3,900 points (97% upvoted) over the next four months (shown below, left). On March 24th, 2018, Redditor bruzdaa posted a Prequel Memes version of the image to /r/PrequelMemes,^[5] where it gained over 7,700 points (98% upvoted) and 50 comments over the next two months (shown below, right).