The Scroll of Truth

About

The Scroll of Truth is an exploitable image series based on a web comic by artist Tate Parker, in which an explorer discovers a scroll that provides various unpleasant or unsettling truths, causing him to angrily toss the parchment away.

Origin

On February 2nd, 2017, Parker posted a webcomic titled "Truth" on Tumblr,^[8] featuring an archaeologist who finds a "Scroll of Truth" that proclaims "no one reads your rants on your Facebook page," causing him to through it away while yelling "nyehhh" (shown below). Within two months, the comic gained over 930 notes.

On March 26th, 4chan user meme distributor submitted a blank template of the comic to /pol/,^[6] leading others to reply with photoshopped variations of the image (shown below).

Precursor

On September 7th, 2016, artist Nathan Pyle tweeted a comic in which Indiana Jones discovers a "crystal which utters only truth," that tells him"some of your problems are your fault" (shown below).^[1]

Spread

On March 26th, Redditor Watashi_o_seiko submitted a photoshop of the comic in which 9gag discovers a scroll with the phrase "you will never be dank" to /r/dankmemes^[5] (shown below, left). Meanwhile, Redditor Goodguykarlmarx submitted^[7] a version of the comic in which Tumblr discovers a scroll proclaiming "there are only 2 genders" to /r/dankmemes, where it garnered upwards of 2,700 votes (94% upvoted) within 10 days (shown below, right).

On April 2nd, Redditor poopf4rt submitted a version of the comic in which the phrase "Snipers are supposed to camp" is written on the scroll (shown below, left). Within 72 hours, the post received more than 1,900 votes (94% upvoted) and 140 comments on /r/battlefield_one.^[3] On April 3rd, Redditor ChaseObserves submitted a post asking if Scroll of Truth memes were a "safe or risky investment" to /r/MemeEconomy.^[4] On April 4th, 2017, Redditor mrsexman69 submitted a photoshop^[2] in which the scroll proclaims "Some of your problems are your own fault" to /r/funny, where it gathered upwards of 1,000 votes (95% upvoted) within 24 hours (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References