About

Poor Bastard Exploded is a catchphrase inspired by a joke Reddit post from September 2022 showing a pair of work boots surrounded by what looks like soot and ash, suggesting that a person spontaneously exploded, leaving only his smoldering boots behind. The virality of the post led to similar gags and memes on social media over the following years.

Origin

On September 2nd, 2022, Redditor MotherTreacle3 posted in the subreddit /r/OSHA^[1] a picture of boots surrounded by a circle of soot and ash, suggesting that someone spontaneously exploded, leaving just their boots behind. They titled the post, "Poor bastard exploded." It gained over 1,700 upvotes but was deleted by moderators of /r/OSHA. The same day, a screenshot of the post was reposted to /r/comedyheaven,^[2] where it gained over 40,000 upvotes in two years.

Spread

The phrase "poor bastard exploded" began to be used in similar posts on social media over the following two years. For example, on August 30th, 2023, Redditor Imajuicymeme posted in /r/5nafcirclejerk^[3] a Five Nights at Freddy's joke using the phrase, gaining over 310 upvotes in one year.

On August 7th, 2023, Twitter / X user @atompalmers^[5] posted art of the original post, gaining over 140 likes in one year.

On August 13th, 2024, Redditor binosbitch posted a Trailer Park Boys version in the /r/TrailerParkBoys^[4] subreddit, gaining over 65 upvotes in one month.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References