Sounds Like a 2023 Problem / Will Ferrell Cracking a Beer

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About

Sounds Like a 2023 Problem or Will Ferrell Cracking a Beer refers to a series of image macros using an image or GIF of the actor Will Ferrell cracking open a can of beer in an open field of flowers, taken from a Super Bowl XLVI ad for Old Milwaukee. The meme first started to spread in 2016, but in late 2022, a version of the meme captioned "sounds like a 2023 problem" gained viral spread across multiple social media platforms.

Origin

On February 5th, 2012, Super Bowl XLVI took place. In one of the television advertisements for Old Milwaukee beer, actor Will Ferrell walks toward the camera through a field of flowers, is passed a beer, then cracks it open. He begins to say "Old Milwaukee," but is cut off. The commercial was uploaded to YouTube^[1] by Mediabistro on February 7th, 2012, garnering over 1.9 million views in 10 years (shown below).

On September 2nd, 2016, Memedroid^[2] user TheRealNSA posted an image macro using a screenshot from the ad with top and bottom text reading, "I ran twice today. First I ran out of beer, and then I ran to get some more," garnering over 1,300 votes in six years (shown below). This is the first known meme using the image.

Spread

The meme became increasingly popularized over the following years. On August 2nd, 2020, the Facebook^[3] page Catholic Memes shared a version of the meme that garnered over 7,100 reactions and 1,200 shares in two years. On January 4th, 2021, a Redditor posted a version of the meme to /r/Witcher,^[4] garnering over 17,900 upvotes in a year (shown below). On August 30th, a GIF of the meme was uploaded to Tenor.^[5]

Sounds Like a 2023 Problem

On November 30th, 2022, Twitter^[6] user @DrGrayFang posted, "My response to anything work related in the next month," along with a version of the Will Ferrell meme captioned, "Sounds like a 2023 problem," garnering over 850 likes in a week. He also posted the meme to his Instagram^[7] page, drgrayfang, garnering over 64,000 likes in the same span of time (shown below).

The meme gained viral spread over the next week as it was reposted across sites like Instagram^[8] and Facebook,^[9] gaining tens to hundreds of thousands of likes and interactions on some. It also inspired new variations of the meme using the same captioned image. For example, on November 30th, laywer-humor Instagram^[10] page litigation_god posted a version of the meme, garnering over 7,100 likes in a week (shown below).

Sounds Like a 2024 Problem

"Sounds Like a 2023 Problem" resurfaced in late 2023, updated to reference the upcoming 2024. One early example featuring the Will Ferrell template was posted on November 17th, 2023 by Twitter user @jbruin,^[11] though it saw little spread (shown below).

Over the following weeks, the catchphrase saw numerous recreations with various image macros. On December 1st, actress Danielle Pinnock of the film Candy Cane Lane posted a recreation featuring her character in the movie,^[12] gaining over 190 retweets and 2,000 likes in three weeks (shown below, left). On December 17th, Redditor kellycarver1015 posted a variation featuring Jim from The Office to /r/humanresources^[13], gaining over 300 points in two days.