Oh God, He's Going for the Jukebox!

About

Oh God, He's Going for the Jukebox! is a cartoon by New Yorker cartoonist Asher Perlman in which a middle-aged man wearing a band T-shirt (Phish in the original) is approaching a jukebox at a bar, with other bar guests attempting to stop him. Posted in October 2021, the cartoon achieved virality on Twitter as an exploitable meme format with versions in which various bands and slogans were edited onto the T-shirt.

Origin

On October 9th, 2021, New Yorker cartoonist Asher Perlman (@asherperlman) posted a cartoon in which a middle-aged man wearing a Phish T-shirt is approaching a jukebox at a bar, with other bar guests running towards him in an attempt to stop him. The post gained over 640 retweets and 8,600 likes on Twitter^[1] and 7,700 likes on Instagram^[2] in one week (shown below).

Spread

On October 12th, Twitter^[3] user @D1C0MM posted the first edit of the image, editing Aphex Twin's logo onto the T-shirt. The tweet (shown below) received over 3,200 retweets and 28,500 likes in four days prior to being deleted. On the same day, Tumblr^[4] user alexandriaocasiocortez reposted the image, with the post gaining over 6,200 likes and reblogs in four days.

Later on October 12th, Tumblr^[5] user artistformerlyknownsandmandaddy posted an AC/DC edit of the image that gained over 4,600 likes and reblogs in three days, with more versions starting to appear on Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr. Later on the same day, the author of the original cartoon Asher Perlman shared^[6] a collection of three edits of the image (shown below, right).

The format maintained notable usage on social media in mid-October 2021. For example, on October 13th, band HEALTH tweeted^[7] an edit in which the man wore HEALTH T-shirt. The post received over 210 retweets and 1,400 shares in two days. On the same day, Twitter^[8] user @vineyille posted a version that gained over 1,500 retweets and 15,800 likes.

Various Examples

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Search Interest

External References