Shrugging Tom

About

Shrugging Tom refers to a reaction image of character Tom from Tom and Jerry animated series shrugging his shoulders and raising his eyebrows. Online, the image has been used as a reaction image and in image macros, often as a way to convey an attempt to play dumb or genuine ignorance.

Origin

On January 16th, 1943, Tom and Jerry animated short "Sufferin' Cats!" premiered.^[1] In one scene of the short, character Tom attempts to trick his rival Meathead Cat by giving him an empty tin can where Meathead believes Jerry is contained, all the while hiding Jerry for himself by sitting on top of him. After giving Meathead Cat the tin can, Tom plays dumb by shrugging his shoulders and raising his eyebrows.

While the exact first use of the image as a reaction is unknown, the first viral post containing the image was posted by Redditor^[2] Unknownghost17 on October 18th, 2019, gaining over 19,300 upvotes in four months.

Spread

The format did not see further spread until on October 27th, 2019, Redditor^[3] Deathcofii posted another meme based on the image to the /r/dankmemes subreddit, where it gained over 47,800 upvotes in three months (shown below).

Following the post, the format gained significant spread on Reddit, also spreading to other online platforms. For example, an October 27th, 2019, meme by Redditor^[4] thinkingamer received over 27,100 upvotes in three months. A November 5th, 2019, meme by Redditor^[5] GenericUser3551 received over 40,800 upvotes in /r/memes in the same period.

Various Examples

Templates

Search Interest

External References