About

Mom? Dad? Friends? is an image macro series based on an illustration of a pale monster-like creature emerging from a cave and desperately calling for its family and friends. On social networking sites and discussion forums, the image macros are often used to declare one's return to normal life after a prolonged period of isolation or preoccupation with a time-consuming activity, whether it be studying for college final exams or completing an entire game in one sitting.

Origin

The illustration was created by artist Jean-Baptiste Monge as part of his 1996 book Halloween.^[1] The first use of the artwork as an image macro was submitted by Redditor masterilly^[2] in an /r/funny post titled "Internet disconnection" on September 29th, 2011, receiving more than 10,700 up votes and 270 comments prior to being archived.

Spread

On December 11th, 2011, the first image macro instance based on the illustration was submitted to /r/funny by Redditor screwmaths,^[3] which alluded to the hermit-like lifestyle of college students during the final exam weeks (shown below).

Redditor screwmaths' quip, which coincided with the final exam weeks in most universities and colleges, soon struck a chord on Reddit and began to spread elsewhere, including other internet humor sites like 9GAG^[6], Quickmeme^[5] and LOLROFLMAO^[8], as well as on Pinterest.^[7]