They Call Me 007

Submission 23,643

Part of a series on James Bond / 007. [View Related Entries]

About

They Call Me 007 refers to a series of image macros that start with the phrase "they call me 007," a reference to the James Bond film series, and list what each of the numbers stands for.

Origin

On January 25th, 2020, Redditor Markuslw posted an image of James Bond, portrayed by Sean Connery, captioning it "they call me 007 at work: 0 motivation, 0 competence, 7 lunch breaks." The post (shown below) received over 11,500 upvotes in the /r/memes^[1] subreddit in six months.

Spread

The image, while circulated online, did not spawn a meme format until June 11th, 2020, when Redditor timcxk reposted it to the /r/memes^[2] subreddit, garnering over 20,000 upvotes. On the same day, timcxk^[3] and Redditor^[4] Tunbing posted the two earliest derivative memes based on the format, with the posts gaining 25 and 45 upvotes, respectively (shown below, left and center). On June 12th, 2020, Facebook^[5] page Troll Football India posted a version of the meme about football player Gonzalo Higuaín, with the post gaining over 140 reactions (shown below, right).

Prior to June 25th, 2020, an unknown user posted a version of the meme captioned "they call me 007 in online matches: 0 kills, 0 assists, 7 deaths" (shown below, left). In late June and July 2020, the post received viral spread through reposts on Instagram^[6] and Facebook.^[7]

On July 30th, 2020, Facebook^[8] page Gaming Memes remade the meme with a Call of Duty: Warzone screenshot, with the post gaining over 2,500 reactions and 24,000 shares in one year (shown below, center). On August 13th, 2020, Redditor^[9] bredslayer reposted a recaptioned version of that meme (shown below, right) to the /r/gaming subreddit, where it received over 103,000 upvotes in six months.

Following the viral spread of the Call of Duty: Warzone version, the format achieved notable popularity online, with users creating their own version of the format. An August 24th, 2020, Fortnite meme by Redditor^[10] TheUseleb received over 7,400 upvotes in six months (shown below, left). An October 22nd, 2020, post by Redditor^[11] PuerOkra1 gained over 10,200 upvotes in the /r/okbuddyretard subreddit in six months (shown below, right).

The format maintained its popularity into 2021, with multiple viral versions appearing after a February 11th, 2021, version by Redditor BilalK07 went viral in the /r/memes^[12] subreddit.