When I'm in a Competition and My Opponent Is

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About

When I'm in a Competition and My Opponent Is refers to a series of image caption and GIF caption memes based on the phrasal template used to mock members of various groups and fandoms through claiming they would be unbeatable in a certain competition. The memes usually combine the "Tonight?" Squidward GIF with the caption, though others with Donkey Kong turning away from a fridge are also common.

Origin

Prior to June 2020, an unknown user made a GIF caption meme combining the caption "When I have to win an overused joke competition and my opponent is a Twitter user" with a GIF of Donkey Kong turning away from a fridge. On June 1st, 2020, Instagram^[1] user aaron.uh made the earliest found repost of the GIF caption, with the post gaining over 8,600 likes and 61,000 views in one year (shown below).

Spread

The GIF and a static image of it received moderate spread^[2]^[3] online through 2020 and 2021 but did not see use as a meme format until March 2021, when on March 23rd, iFunny^[4] user nick0321879 made a repost that gained over 11,500 smiles in seven months.

Starting in April 2021, multiple recaptioned memes based on the image were posted on iFunny, Instagram and Reddit. For example, on April 10th, 2021, iFunny^[5] user Electivire posted a version that received over 50 smiles in six months (shown below, left). On April 19th, Instagram^[6] user kawakamifan53 posted a meme that received over 1,300 likes and 4,200 views in six months (shown below, center). On April 21st, Redditor SlavicMemer posted a GIF caption that accumulated over 7,500 upvotes in /r/tf2shitposterclub^[7] subreddit in the same period (shown below, right).

The "overused joke competition" part of the caption remained unchanged until July 7th, 2021, when Twitter^[8] user @Edgyninja1 posted a version of the meme captioned, "When I'm in a boot licking competition and my opponent is a Nintendo fan," also replacing the image of Donkey Kong with "Tonight?" Squidward reaction image (shown below, left). The post received over 70 retweets and 300 likes prior to being removed, also spreading through screenshots. On July 10th, 2021, Redditor^[9] Broiled69 posted a remake of the meme to /r/Gamingcirclejerk, where it received over 11,300 upvotes in five months (shown below, right).

The remade version of @Edgyninja1's post achieved major popularity as source material for recaptions. For example, on July 16th, 2021, iFunny^[10] user Can_i_touch_ur_wenus posted a meme that received over 250 smiles in three months (shown below, left). On July 24th, Twitter^[11] user @benpaste posted a GIF caption that accumulated over 860 retweets and 5,400 likes in the same period (shown below, right).

The snowclone maintained significant popularity online in the following months, used primarily on iFunny and Twitter.