Made the Fish I Just Caught Watch X

Submission 1,053

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About

Made the Fish I Just Caught Watch X is an exploitable meme format based on a video of a fish watching the 2016 XXL Freshman Cypher on a cellphone being held in front of its face by the fisherman who caught it. The original video was posted to Instagram in late June 2024 and gained viral spread as an exploitable over the following weeks. As a meme, the video or image on the phone is changed to another piece of content and an on-screen caption is often added, reading some variation of the phrasal template, "Made the fish I just caught watch X," with "X" being the content the fish is watching.

Origin

On June 15th, 2024, TikToker^[1] @manicmechanic01 posted a video of a man holding a fish they caught facing a cellphone playing the 2016 XXL Freshman Cypher video, garnering over 2 million views in a month (shown below). The video was reposted by X^[2] user @blephin_ on June 20th, garnering over 155,000 likes in the same rough span of time.

Spread

On June 20th, 2024, Instagram^[3] user 444utopia reposted the video, the description reading, "Gotta show other species peak media." The post gained over 12,000 likes in three weeks. On June 21st, the flavortownusa and official guyfieri Instagram^[4] pages posted an edited version of the video in which an episode of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives is shown on the screen under an additional on-screen caption reading, "Made the fish I just caught watch DDD," garnering over 118,000 likes in three weeks (shown below).

The meme continued to spread throughout late June leading into July 2024. On June 27th, X^[5] user @RustySutton posted an edit of the fish watching MJ Lenderman's music video for "She's Leaving You," garnering over 640 likes in two weeks (shown below, left). On July 4th, X^[6] user @morrlennfc posted an edit putting The Beatles' rooftop concert on the phone, garnering over 3,000 likes in six days (shown below, right).

On July 6th, the Facebook^[7] page Adding Alexander into Movie Scenes Until Elden Ring DLC is Released posted a version of the meme referencing a questline in Elden Ring, garnering over 1,900 reactions and 250 shares in four days (shown below).