Who Stepped on the Bread? I Did

About

Who Stepped on the Bread? I Did, also known as The Crime / The Criminal, refers to a two-panel exploitable meme template showing a piece of white bread with a small paw print and the culprit who stepped on the slice. A secondary format instead labeled the images "the crime" and "the criminal" and used a photo of a pie crust with three paw prints. The aforementioned format riffed on the The Art / The Artist meme. Both formats started in 2021, trending on Twitter / X and Tumblr, among other platforms, going into the early 2020s. A notable resurgence occurred in mid-2024.

Origin

On January 11th, 2021, X^[4] user @LlKEYMP4 quoted a since-deleted tweet posted by X^[5] user @ariyeris that read, "I'm gonna start tweeting about western artists like kpop stans do." @LlKEYMP4's quote used two photos: one showing a piece of bread with a paw print and the other showing actor Mads Mikkelsen with cat ears. Over three years, the post received roughly 20,000 likes (shown below).

Spread

On March 22nd, 2021, X^[1] user @urfriendimane tweeted two photos: one showing a pie crust with three paw prints and the other showing a kitten. The images were captioned, "the crime" and "the criminal." Over three years, the tweet received roughly 39,400 likes (shown below, left).

Various iterations of the format surfaced going into 2021, such as a tweet shared by X^[2] user @AureliaOT7 on March 23rd, that showed a BTS member, gaining over 43,000 likes in three years (shown below, right).

On September 4th, 2021, Tumblr^[3] user charlesoberonn posted an Objection! parody showing Phoenix Wright defending the cat from the crime, gaining over 126,200 notes in three years (shown below, click to expand).

The format resurfaced en masse in mid-2024. For instance, on June 26th, 2024, X^[6] user @sheinsrevenge quoted a video of rapper Kendrick Lamar getting his cheek pinched with the "Who stepped on the bread?" format, receiving over 174,000 likes in eight days (shown below).

Various Examples

Templates

Search Interest

Unavailable.

External References