They Caught Me Peeping In Their Room

Submission 1,648

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About

They Caught Me Peeping In Their Room is an exploitable meme format based on a photograph of a boy rubbing the back of his neck with the Droplet Emoji trailing down his forehead as if he's sweating while three anime girls from the series Oreimo stand behind him, suggesting he was peeping on them. The meme was originally posted to iFunny in July 2019 and gained viral spread throughout the 2020s, becoming the subject of photoshops in which the anime girls are replaced with other characters.

Origin

On July 10th, 2019, iFunny^[1] user Cuntkun_2017 posted a screenshot of what appears to be a Snapchat post in which a boy is shown rubbing the back of his neck with a sweat emoji on his forehead as three girls from the anime series Oreimo, Ayase Aragaki, Ruri Goko and Kirino Kosaka, drawn by artist Hairu,^[2] stand behind him with a banner at the top reading, "They caught me peeping in their room," garnering over 95 smiles in five years (shown below). This is the earliest known account to post the meme.

Spread

The meme gained viral spread over the following years, often being shared as an example of cringe, while also becoming the subject of edits. The earliest known edit was posted by iFunny^[3] user VegitoRed on July 14th, 2019, garnering around 50 smiles in five years.

On January 20th, 2020, the original meme was posted to the subreddit /r/MakeMeSuffer,^[4] garnering over 2,100 upvotes in four years. It was then reposted to /r/cringepics^[5] the next day, garnering over 6,000 upvotes in the same timeframe.

Later that day, an edit of the meme was posted to /r/okbuddyretard^[6] replacing the anime girls with Walter, Staring Fish and Obamium, garnering over 4,100 upvotes in four years (shown below, left). On the same day, a version replacing the girls with Minions was posted to /r/okbuddyretard,^[7] garnering over 1,800 upvotes in the same span of time (shown below, right).

On June 12th, 2021, the original meme was posted by Instagram^[8] user duckidoll, garnering over 3,000 likes in three years. On November 5th, 2023, X^[9] user @sour_lemmon posted a redraw of the meme referencing the video game Splatoon, garnering over 2,300 likes in eight months (shown below).

On May 6th, 2024, a screenshot of an X post from a private or deleted account, @harmfulyuri, sharing the original meme and asking, "what is this genre of image called," was posted to /r/shitposting,^[10] garnering over 6,500 upvotes in two months.
That same day, X^[11] user @snakescigs posted an edit of the meme featuring Metal Gear characters in the doorway, garnering over 2,900 likes in two months (shown below).