"Why Are You Dressed Like That?" Family Dinner

About

"Why Are You Dressed Like That?" Family Dinner refers to a Twitter trend that is meant to evoke a traditional extended family, surprised by the appearance of a relative they rarely see. The format consists of two sequential images, with the text "why are you dressed like that" formatted to caption the first image, and "like what?" to caption the second. The first image shows a large white family seated at a dinner table with full plates, with everyone at the table staring at the viewer. The second image shows the person they family is addressing, with an unusual appearance which the caption suggests they find normal. The meme is similar to White Family Welcoming You Back to the Table / Look Who Decided to Come Out of Their Room.

Origin

On December 15th, 2020, Twitter user nternetgirl^[1] tweeted the earliest known version of the meme (below), featuring a family asking the question to a corpselike, low-polygonal woman with stringy hair, gray skin and black eyes, seated at a booth in a restaurant. This image had been in use previously on Twitter as an avatar for people who are not aware they are members of a stereotypically scorned group or fandom^[2]. The tweet amassed 35 thousand retweets and 266 thousand likes after ten days.

Spread

The meme became popular on Twitter in the days following the initial tweet. The format lent itself well to the Christmas season, with users identifying with the outcast represented in the second image. Popular examples include a post from IIKaydenII^[3] showing Chris Evans with whipped cream on his nipples, gaining over 100 retweets and 500 likes (shown below, left) and a post from @oocandrewscott,^[4] who showed a picture of Andrew Scott's character from Fleabag which gained over 100 retweets and 2,600 likes (shown below, right).

Others made the joke using two stills from movie or television scenes. For example, user @clerenza^[5] tweeted stills from What We Do In The Shadows, gaining over 780 retweets and 4,300 likes (shown below, left) and user @gilmoreanaju^[6] used stills from Gilmore Girls, gaining over 1,000 retweets and 8,500 likes (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

Unavailable

External References