Proper Anatomy

Submission 24,274

About

Proper Anatomy is a series of troll-scientific anatomical charts of animals intentionally labeled with made-up names for their body parts. It is sometimes referred to a Proper Anatomy of a Goat due to the original instance of the meme breaking down the anatomy of a goat.

Origin

The first known version of this meme was a picture of a goat, labeling pointing to parts of it's anatomy like a normal scientific anatomy diagram would. However, the image used silly terms, such as calling it's eyes "little blinkers" the back legs "Jump sticks" and it's ears "wiggly listeners"

The oldest surving copy of this image was posted by the Tumblr blog of Tastefully Offensive ^[1] on March 11th, 2013 and gained 5,000 notes in 2 years. Another tumbler blog, "princessofworms" later posted the image two months later on May 29th 2013 ^[2] with the text below the post saying "im a scientist and very important to know goat part". Although this blog has since been taken down, surviving reblogs of this post indicate that it gained 100,000 notes within 2 years.

While this version of of the image has been around at least since 2013, prior to it the same image appeared on the internet with the caption "Look at this baby goat he doesn't get in fights over the internet. Be the goat" at least since 2010^[4]

Spread

On Reddit there are multiple copies of the image ^[6], with the most popular one gaining 2,763 votes, with 90% positive ^[5]. The most popular post on Cheezburger was on the Memebase sub-site Graphjam gained 2,793 votes ^[7].

While Proper Goat Anatomy remains the most popular version, several other versions with different animals have been made. On September 7th, 2013 Tumblr user "cptmalhammer" posted a collection of 4 different proper anatomy examples, including the original Proper Goat Anatomy one in a single post. Within a year and a half this post gained over 266,000 notes.^[8] On November 16th, 2013 Tumblr user "weeaboo-chan" uploaded their own drawing of a rabbit titled "Anatomy of the Bun". Within a year and a half this post gained over 152,000 notes^[9]

"Anatomy of" Fan Edits

In February 2019, J-Pop and Anime fans began posting images of celebrities and characters that showcase edits that highlight cute attributes. On February 12th, one of the earliest variations was posted by Twitter user @jeonghnas^[10] with the caption "the rose quartz + serenity anatomy of an angel" (shown below). The tweet gained 1,400 retweets and 2,600 likes in a month.

On February 21st, YouTuber SeokMeyz uploaded a tutorial on how to do your own "anatomy of" edits (shown below). The video gained 163,000 views and 18,000 likes in a week. In a piece published by The Outline^[12] the author writes, "Many of the meme designers used the app Picsart as well as other apps like Superimpose, Pixellab, Google Slides, and VSCO, which enable easy manipulation of photos."

On February 24th, Twitter user @odetosleepiness^[13] posted an "anatomy of" Howie Mandel (shown below, left). The edit features a close up of his hands and bald head. The tweet accumulated 147 retweets and 987 likes in a week. On February 26th, Twitter user @TJKIPPENS^[11] posted a Remy the rat edit from Ratatouile which gained 138 retweets and 430 likes in a week (shown below, right).

Many of the "anatomy of" edits feature celebrity heart throbs. On February 28th, @anatomyofedits^[14] posted a variation featuring Aidan Gallager from the Netflix show Umbrella Academy (shown below, left). The tweet garnered 234 retweets and 720 likes within a week. On March 1st, American Horror parody Twitter account @itsmeevanpeters^[15] posted an "anatomy of Evan Peters" (shown below, right). The tweet gained 51 retweets and 302 likes in four days.