Terry The Fat Shark

Submission 28,318

About

Terry The Fat Shark refers to an image macro of a shark who is usually posted on Wednesdays appearing to bear a "gift" as a "token of friendship." The caption of each Terry meme promises he will return the following Wednesday with a new gift.

Origin

Terry the Fat Shark was first posted to /r/dankmemes^[2] on March 6th, 2019 by Redditor Ecstatic_Pickle, gaining over 4,800 points before the meme was deleted by moderators for being "normie trash." On March 20th, 2019, Redditor Aphex_tw1n reposted the first Terry the Fat Shark image in /r/oddlyspecific,^[1] gaining over 1,100 points in roughly a year and a half. Terry presents a shrimp.

Spread

Terry began growing more popular in other subreddits and on other social media sites over a year after the first post. For example, a Terry dubbed "Week 13" posted in /r/memes^[3] on June 17th, 2020 by Redditor omega_wolf gained over 490 points (shown below, left). On June 3rd, Imgur user ImYourBiologicalStepDadUncleRob^[4] posted an example that gained over 110,000 views on the platform (shown below, right).

On August 26th, 2020, Ecstatic_Pickle posted a Grant Gustin Next To Oliver Queen's Grave celebrating the revival of Terry the Fat Shark.^[5] The meme was covered by StayHipp.^[6]