Vegeta Reading

Submission 5,120

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About

Vegeta Reading refers to a piece of Dragon Ball fan art showing the character Vegeta reading a book in a library. Vegeta is wearing a suit and glasses, leaning against a bookshelf while looking at the viewer. The artwork was created by internet user WhirlyDoodle in 2023. Vegeta Reading became the subject of an image macro series which notably spread on TikTok in 2024. Captions about being studious or smart were paired with the image in photo slideshows and slow fade-in memes. The image was often used with the Blackbeard Writing meme.

Origin

On July 28th, 2023, Instagram^[1] user WhirlyDoodle (@whirlydoodle_) posted a piece of original Dragon Ball fan art, showing the character Vegeta reading a book in a library. WhirlyDoodle had already posted the image on a different social media platform, likely their private Twitter / X^[2] account, but reshared it because "the meme version has been making the rounds." Also in the Instagram caption, WhirlyDoodle said that the piece was originally commissioned by X^[3] user @AvieAwesome.

The Instagram post is currently the first discovered posting of the image across WhirlyDoodle's socials, including Tumblr. The Instagram post received over 1,200 likes in a year (shown below).

Spread

Before WhirlyDoodle's abovementioned Instagram post, on July 12th, 2023, X^[5] user @hoodmonogatari tweeted a cropped and low-quality version of the image with a top caption reading, "Do you want the method?" The image received 197 likes in a year (shown below). It is currently the first discovered posting of the image.

On August 20th, 2023, Redditor^[4] Courier2877 posted the cropped and low-quality version of the image to /r/Ningen, captioning it, "What would you do if he was your school librarian," gaining over 580 upvotes in a year.

On February 2nd, 2024, X^[7] user @JoriiMin tweeted the "Do you want the method?" meme in a quote retweet, receiving over 16,000 likes in eight months (shown below).

On February 7th, TikToker^[6] @duban379 posted a slow fade-in video that used the Vegeta Reading image, captioned, "When the class reading a book but your name in it." Over eight months, the video gained roughly 1.9 million plays and 325,100 likes (shown below).

On August 4th, 2024, YouTuber^[8] kobyshinobi posted a video called "What is 'The Method?'" that centered on the Vegeta Reading image and evolved into an AI Song Cover of Juice Wrld's "Robbery." Over four months, the video amassed over 137,200 views and 20,000 likes (shown below).

In late 2024, usage of the Vegeta meme continued. For instance, on October 9th, TikToker^[9] @lordjogo posted a two-photo slideshow that used the Blackbeard Writing TikTok sound,^[10] gaining over 1.6 million plays and 354,200 likes in six days (shown below).