Sad Hulk / The Hulk Crying

About

Sad Hulk or The Hulk Crying also known as Guys I'm Starting To Forget is an exploitable image macro meme using an image of the Hulk crying from Incredible Hulks issue 616. The meme first appeared online as early as June 2019 and was first popularized among Spanish speakers, becoming increasingly prevalent among English-speaking web users throughout the 2020s. The meme is often used to convey a sense of sadness over something you've grown out of, forgotten or otherwise moved on from. I November 2024, the meme was banned from the /r/memes subreddit.

Origin

While the earliest version of the "Hulk Crying" meme is unconfirmed, the earliest known example was posted by X^[1] user @jeffocondoblef on June 27th, 2019, garnering over 6,300 likes in five years (shown below, left). The meme, which is in Spanish, reads what roughly translates to, "Mom, is there cake left?"

The image of the Hulk crying originates from Incredible Hulks issue 616, published on November 10th, 2010 (shown below, right).^[2]

Spread

The meme continued to spread throughout the 2020s among both Spanish and English-speaking social media users. On April 7th, 2020, X^[3] user @SoyFedelobo posted a version of the meme that translates to, "I laughed at a TikTok video," garnering over 6,000 likes in four years (shown below, left).

On October 10th, 2021, Redditor u/CompaBladi420 posted a meme to /r/weezer^[4] in which the Hulk cries about no longer listening to Weezer, garnering over 700 upvotes in three years (shown below, right).

On May 22nd, 2023, a meme was posted to the subreddit /r/MemePiece^[5] referencing One Piece using the Hulk Crying format, garnering over 2,800 upvotes in a year (shown below, left). On March 20th, 2024, Redditor u/FishyFries2_0 posted a meme to /r/Steam^[6] using the format about waiting on pending funds to buy a game on sale, garnering over 2,700 upvotes in four months (shown below, right).

On July 2nd, 2024, X^[7] user @sinnoh_CEO posted a version of the meme about forgetting the names of Pokemon as you get older, garnering over 176,000 likes in a day (shown below). The meme was reposted to /r/animeindian^[8] that day, garnering over 700 upvotes in the same span of time.

Ban From The /r/Memes Subreddit

On December 1st, 2024, the /r/memes^[9] subreddit mods updated their "overused memes" section to ban the use of the Sad Hulk meme on the board, which had purportedly become notably popular among users. The ban resulted in a wave of memes criticizing the mods for the ban and offering alternatives to the Sad Hulk format.

For example, on December 3rd, u/GustOfWindd posted a Living In 1984 meme to /r/memes^[10] about the ban, garnering over 23,000 upvotes in two days.

On December 4th, u/AaronWrongArts posted a cat looks inside meme to /r/memes^[11] about the ban, garnering over 27,000 upvotes in a day. Later that day, u/Ragna_Blade posted an alternative to the Sad Hulk meme to /r/memes,^[12] consisting of similar images of The Thing crying, garnering over 68,000 upvotes in a day.

Later that same day, u/The_Black_Jacket posted an alternative to the format to /r/memes^[13] featuring images of the The Infraggable Krunk from Dexter's Laboratory, a parody of The Hulk, garnering over 32,000 upvotes in a day.

Various Examples

Template

Search Interest

External References