Your Chances Of X Are Low But Never Zero

About

Your Chances Of X Are Low But Never Zero is a catchphrase and phrasal template used on photos of animals or other slightly intimidating-looking things. Since the beginning of its circulation in 2019, the phrase has been used in a variety of situations as both a meme using an animal or as a comment under pictures and videos with ominous auras.

Origin

The phrase comes from a post on Reddit that was uploaded on December 13th, 2019, by Redditor Winchester247^[1] and features a cow looking through a window. The picture of the cow in the window comes from an earlier Reddit post, one by Redditor Dinosaurlover1^[2] in which they claim to have woken up to the cow staring at them through the window. Due to the ominous nature of the cow staring, the meme was created in which it was asserted that "Your chances of getting killed by a cow are low, but never zero," with the meme gaining over 35,000 upvotes in two years (shown below).

Spread

The phrase quickly began to spread and get attached to several other pictures, mostly of animals, that had a threatening aura about them in captions to create memes (similar to Boss Fights). For example, a Reddit post on March 9th, 2020, by Redditor PhiLHaus^[3] in which a camel with a gun strapped to its hump is used as the thing that can have a low but never zero chance of killing you (shown below). The meme received over 29,100 upvotes in roughly two years.

After a year of use around the web as it spread, the meme began to evolve and get applied to anything that had a menacing aura about it, rather than just animals. An example is seen in the Reddit post^[4] uploaded on February 24th, 2021, by a now-deleted account in which a shadow from a light on an exercise bike makes it look like it is plotting the death of the next rider, earning over 67,000 upvotes in one year (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

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External References