Bear In The Big Blue House

Submission 30,772

Part of a series on The Meme Renaissance of Me_IRL / The Great Meme War of October 2016. [View Related Entries]

About

Bear In The Big Blue House is a Disney childrens' television series centered around the show's protagonist Bear who lives in a house with several of his puppet friends. In early October 2016, image macros of the character were frequently posted on the /r/me_irl subreddit to compete with the annual skeleton war event, leading some viewers to accuse the bear posts of being a forced meme.

Origin

On October 4th, 2016, Redditor bradfordGT submitted a picture of Bear from Bear In The Big Blue House, along with the caption "Trying to sneak in the new meme of the month like" (shown below). Within 72 hours, the post received upwards of 1,500 votes (93% upvoted) on the /r/me_irl subreddit.^[1]

Spread

Over the next 24 hours, several Bear in the Big Blue House image macros reached the front page of /r/me_irl (shown below).^[8]^[9]^[10]

On October 5th, 2016, Redditor bradfordGT submitted a post stating that the "Bear in the Big Blue House memes" were "so hot right now" to /r/MemeEconomy.^[4] That same day, Redditor Zonemasta8 speculated that the Bear in the Big Blue House would be the "meme of the month" in /r/MemeEconomy,^[5] meanwhile a post featuring the bear on a "Great Meme Drought of October 2016" calendar reached the front page of /r/me_irl^[2] (shown below).

The following day, Redditor TornzIP submitted a post claiming that the bear meme was "not meme of the month," arguing that it was being forced by people who were impatient for a new meme to rise organically. Within 24 hours, the post gained over 1,400 votes (91% upvoted) and 60 comments on /r/me_irl.^[7] On October 6th, Redditor Pwnigiri submitted a "Whoa, We're Halfway There" image macro featuring a skeleton and Bear (shown below). On October 7th, Redditor PatClanet submitted a post announcing that "Bear in the Big Blue House memes are soon to peak!" to the /r/MemeEconomy^[3] subreddit.