Man Disappointed by Fridge

Submission 4,482

Part of a series on Reaction Images. [View Related Entries]

About

Man Disappointed by Fridge refers to a reaction GIF of an excited Black man looking inside his fridge, rubbing his hands together, but then being disappointed by what's inside. He then moves away from the fridge and rolls his eyes. It is currently unknown who the man is, however, the GIF dates back to 2012. It gained continual usage going into the 2020s, including a notable Team Fortress 2 (TF2) re-animation. It was used in memes on Twitter / X and elsewhere to portray disappointment.

Origin

Currently, the first known upload of the GIF was on the website Cinemagram^[1] by user ItsCharleighV on October 27th, 2012, who captioned it, "I do this 4 times a day lol," receiving over 13,600 likes in a year.

Spread

The GIF was reposted by Tumblr^[2] user boobscupcakesnweed on October 30th, 2012, where it gained roughly 52,700 notes in three years. Soon after, Señor GIF shared the GIF on Cheezburger,^[3]^[4] giving it a "senorgif.com" watermark. The post received over 7,800 upvotes in 12 years.

On November 1st, 2012, Tumblr^[10] user cvmpulsive shared the GIF, writing, "i have never seen a gif that represents my life better than this one," amassing over 426,300 notes in 12 years (shown below).

On November 2nd, 2012, an anonymous user on Imgur^[5] posted the GIF, captioned, "Repeat 6 times until you settle on scrambled eggs," receiving over 2,400 views in 14 years.

On November 9th, 2012, an Imgur^[6] user shared the GIF, captioned, "Every time I open the fridge," gaining over 4.8 million views in 14 years (shown below, right).

On October 1st, 2017, Redditor^[7] ThisStuffRightHere shared a GIF to /r/tf2 that showed Scout from TF2 looking in a fridge and being disappointed, gaining over 7,700 upvotes in six years (shown below, left).

The re-animated GIF later gained more memes, many of which were centered on Discord. For instance, on December 22nd, 2021, iFunnier ^[8] @dyingUnexpectedTF2 shared a GIF Caption that was later reposted by to /r/shitposting^[9] where it gained over 24,900 upvotes in two years (shown below, right).

Going into the 2020s, the GIF continued to amass viral usage, evident in a quote posted by X^[9] user @DiUmeatrider on December 24th, 2023, who captioned it, "watching a good video and the yter makes a cancel culture joke," receiving over 20,000 likes in three months (shown below).