The Grandiloquent Caption

About

The Grandiloquent Caption is a caption meme format in which a photograph of an animal or a person in a pose resembling a certain object or being is paired with a caption presenting that thing in a humorously grandiloquent way. Spawned by the Nefarious Anglerfish meme in July 2023, the format saw viral spread on Tumblr and X / Twitter in 2024.

Origin

On June 19th, 2023, X^[1] user @Gend0Tor3tto posted a photograph of a white cat belonging to Instagram user @uni.iunagi in which the cat's tail is resting on the cat's head and dangling down, captioned with a joke about the cat resembling a "nefarious anglerfish." The post (shown below) garnered over 5,400 reposts and 21,000 likes in one year.

On August 20th, 2023, Tumblr^[2] user maamlet posted a slightly altered version of the caption meme, with their post (shown below) gaining over 140,000 likes and reblogs prior to removal. Notably, The Nefarious Anglerfish meme saw independent spread online as it inspired fan art and references.

Spread

On March 31st, 2024, X^[3] user @zuza_real posted the earliest found derivative version of the meme, captioning a photo of a cat appearing to have only one leg with a joke about it resembling an apostrophe. The post (shown below) garnered over 72,000 reposts and 58,000 likes in eight months.

More memes based on the caption format went viral on X and Tumblr in the following months. Notably, on May 27th, 2024, Tumblr^[4] user techromancer1179 posted an image of a gerbil resembling a garlic bulb, making a joke about the resemblance. The post (shown below) received over 20,000 reblogs and 28,000 likes in five months.

On July 18th, 2024, Tumblr^[5] user fleshdyketwo posted a since-removed caption meme based on an image of a Chatham petrel chick, making a joke about it resembling a mold spore. The post (shown below), which also spawned the The Despicable Mold Spore subformat, garnered over 17,000 likes and reblogs prior to removal.

On July 22nd, 2024, Tumblr^[6] posted another meme based on the format referencing the Half-Life video game series that gained over 15,000 reblogs and 23,000 likes in four months (shown below).

The format saw active use on Tumblr and X in the following months.

List of Popular Grandiloquent Descriptions

• The dastardly
• The deceptive
• The delectable
• The dependable
• The despicable
• The devious
• The humble
• The nefarious
• The perfidious
• The reliable
• The treacherous
• The trustworthy

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References