Morbidly a Beast

Submission 7,196

Part of a series on Misinterpretation (Comedy Trope). [View Related Entries]

About

Morbidly a Beast is an intentional misinterpretation of the term "morbidly obese," which is used as a catchphrase in ironic memes. The memes are usually structured in a way that the person diagnosed with morbid obesity is bragging about being called "morbidly a beast," often with other weight-related puns also included.

Origin

On February 25th, 2020, Redditor ilterkagan posted an Edgy Skeleton meme captioned, "The docktor said I am morbidly a beast." The post (shown below) received over 9,100 upvotes in the /r/okbuddyretard^[1] subreddit prior to being removed.

Spread

Prior to September 28th, 2020, an unknown Redditor posted the earliest meme reusing the caption (post could not be discovered). That day, iFunny^[2] account rebel_okbuddyretard reposted the image (shown below, left) with the meme being widely circulated in early October that year. On November 18th, 2020, Redditor PonyUpDaddy posted a meme captioned with the phrase that received over 18,900 upvotes in /r/dankmemes^[3] three years (shown below, right).

The catchphrase appeared in more memes in the following years. Notably, during the popularity of Morbius memes in 2022, the variant "morbiusly a beast" achieved virality as a catchphrase (shown below, left and right).^[4]^[5]

On June 7th, 2023, TikToker^[6] @sorenthesturdy started captioning videos posted by another TikToker, Garfield "Tehnz" Cosby (@tehnz) dancing, making jokes about his body weight which included the catchphrase. The first video (shown below, left) gained over 4.1 million views and 772,600 likes in three months. On June 14th, TikToker^[7] @weebflock posted another meme based on a @tehnz's video, gaining over 1.4 million views in two months (shown below, right).

In the following months, @sorenthesturdy and @weebflock posted multiple similar memes, some of which achieved spread beyond TikTok.^[8]

Playboianto / Me and the Gang If We Were In an Anime

Playboyanto is a TikToker and a shitposter who uses footage of several obese and conventionally unattractive people to create memes about anime fans. In videos posted on the account, the main character (sometimes referred to as "cute anime boy") and several recurring characters partake in various popular anime TikTok trends, reaffirming fandom generalization memes about weaboos.