Smithers Scared of Strippers

About

Smithers Scared of Strippers is an image macro series based on a scene from the American animated television series The Simpsons in which the character Waylon Smithers covering his eyes while surrounded by exotic dancers. The meme has been used in a series of object labeling memes about expressing fear from something other people enjoy.

Origin

On December 2nd, 2001, the Simpsons episode "A Hunka Hunka Burns in Love" aired in the United States.^[1] In the episode, the character Waylon Smithers, who at the time of the episode's airing, represented "the stereotype of a closeted gay man," according to Wikipedia,^[2] went to a strip club and was surrounded by dancers. Playing into the joke about closeted homosexual men, Smithers covered his eyes in fear (shown below).

On May 22nd, 2011, Tumblr ^[3] user fyspringfield posted the earliest known usage of the scene online, uploading a GIF of the scene. The post received more than 27,000 notes in less than a decade (shown below).

Spread

Later that year, on December 5th, a Redditor, ^[4] who has since deleted their account, posted the GIF with the caption "How people view me when I tell them I practice abstinence." The post received more than 170 points (84% upvoted) and 20 comments in less than a decade (shown below, left).

The following year, Redditor^[5] Artaxerxes88 posted an object-labeled variation of the GIF to represent voters in the 2012 United States Presidential Election. The post received more than 1,200 points (93% upvoted) and 30 comments in less than eight years (shown below, center).

On September 10th, 2017, Instagram ^[6] user @masipopal shared an image of the scene with the caption "Instagram explore page after you like one picture of a fitness model." The post received more than 31,000 likes in less than three years (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Template

Search Interest

Not Available.

External References