Mr. Incredible Meme EXPLAINED: Meaning, Origin And , and Why It’s So Relatable

The Mr. Incredible Meme has gone viral all due to the comedic representation of the emotional transitions that we all feel from time to time. The meme is based on a scene from Pixar’s The Incredibles where we see Mr. Incredible transition from a sense of confidence to frustration. This is a relatable representation of the ups and downs of life.

Here at Grumpysharks, we love how relatable this is to everyone going through contemporary life, and how it great captures the universal struggle between optimism and reality. This article will explore the origins, meaning, and why it speaks to so many people.

#1 What Is the Mr. Incredible Meme?

At its simplest, the Mr. Incredible meme describes a visual storytelling tradition that uses successive facial expressions to convey a descent into emotional chaos—or in some remixes, an emotional recovery. The meme originated with two images of Mr. Incredible, one vibrant, confident version from The Incredibles 2 and another deteriorated “cursed” version in black in white that looks like it belongs in a horror filter. These contrasting images make for the ideal setting to communicate a before and after emotional state.

The most famous version is called “Traumatized Mr. Incredible” or “Mr. Incredible Becoming Uncanny” in which each panel gets more sinister or distorted, indicating his discomfort, fear, or realization is deepening. A common example compares People Who Don’t Know vs. People Who Know–playfully contrasting lighthearted vs. grimmer images to create a comedic effect.

From there it’s went wild. “Mr. Incredible Becoming Canny” flips everything, showing Mr. Incredible getting his composure back or having clarity, with a number of remixed versions that covers everything school related stress, pop culture realizations, etc. The versatility and emotional relatability are what made it explode across Reddit, TikTok, and Twitter.

#2 What Is The Origin Of Mr. Incredible Meme?

The Mr. Incredible meme started to be popular in 2020 when a Twitter user named @CitizenPlain posted a group of images that were “reverse toonified” versions of The Incredibles characters, which has a reverse toonified two-panel render of Mr. Incredible’s original concept art and the AI model’s black and white version. This post received a lot of attention with 640 retweets, and 3,100 likes in a year.

In November 2020, a Redditor going by the name of PARILIZEDpArrOT243 further popularized the meme by making a “The Teacher’s Copy vs. What They Give You” comparison of the reverse toonified image, receiving over 67,000 upvotes in six months.

There was further growth for the meme in 2021 when a YouTube user, músicos Cínicos 鯉 uploaded a video entitled “mr incredible becoming uncanny”, that showed Mr. incredible changing into more and more distorted and uncanny versions, the video reached over 624,000 views, getting over 32,000 likes with the meme reaching more prominence.

Following this the meme propagated to TikTok and Facebook users and users would make various renditions of the meme like “People Who Don’t Know vs People Who Know” variation. For example, TikTok user @fishystik1a created a video called “hearing your name called at:” which has the meme in it gained over 60,000 views in only 10 days.

Different renditions of the meme depend on how lazy the user is and how much they incorporate the meme. Specifically one meme adaptation is called “Mr. Incredible Becoming Ascended” which is the conversion of Mr. Incredible in distress to Mr. Incredible once he’s on cloud-9 high with life, and the adaptation can range from “Mr. Incredible Becoming Uncanny” which is illustrating the continual devolution of Mr. Incredible into horror.

Overall, the meme as a whole began as AI generated images on Twitter, and fed into Reddit and YouTube, and subsequently brought the meme into anything related to social media platforms earning its place within the meme biomes.

#3 Why Is the Mr. Incredible Meme So Relatable?

The Gradual Change in Expression Reflects Emotional Descent

The appeal of the Mr. Incredible meme is its illustration of a subtle and powerful change in expression, ranging from confident to uncomfortable. The way Mr. Incredible’s facial expressions progress from composed, excited to deteriorating, emotionally distressed conveys the way we often feel when minor issues snowball into something we cannot control.

His carefully illustrated gradual change in emotion is a visual metaphor for the emotional descent many of us feel, especially when faced with unexpected levels of stress and disappointment. This descent in emotion reflects the human experience, creating an instantaneous relatability.

Used to Exhibit “Normal to Disturbing” Progression in Real-Life Examples

This type of meme is especially popular in a social content space because it captures the “normal to disturbing” progression in a funny yet tragic way. This meme is often used to illustrate any person’s transition from innocence to realization in terms of social circumstances, whether in real-life scenarios and discussions about personal life, work, or school experience.

For example, social media posters often share the meme to exemplify going from confident in their capability to realize how challenging the experience is. The meme portrays to the audience the experience of daily life being changed out of nowhere from normal to frantic, offering the perfect meme to communicate relatable disappointment or self-doubt moments.

Fits with Shared Online Anxieties and Absurd Humor

The Mr. Incredible meme ultimately taps into the anxieties of modern life, of having to meet high expectations set by ourselves as a common currency of another level of anxiety and absurdity that we all share, normalized through the internet. It isn’t every day we can take a break from feeling overthinking, underwhelmed or emotionally burnt out by the absurd input of life, and laugh about it in an way in a humorous representation of our feelings, and be able to normalize that feeling.

The meme conveys nonsense, but at the same time a sense of reality, and brings to surface some of those feelings and in turn gives off catharsis, or some degree of resolution; we laugh, more than we should, and feel like we share the experiences of anxiety with others that also find it absurd. This complexity of nature of the meme is why it has been used so widely; it is funny, cathartic, promotes connection and bonds over shared experiences that often aren’t normal and absurd.

#4 How Did Mr. Incredible Spread Across the Internet?

The format reached its viral apex in late June 2021, just after a Redditor named a_cuppa_java posted a version of the meme which received over 39,000 upvotes in three months. This was the start of the meme’s widespread use in a variety of online communities.

On September 5, 2021, a Redditor named Dapper_Dildo posted a four-panel Table-Kun meme using the “Traumatized Mr. Incredible” format. Panels were captioned, “People who don’t know” and, “People who Know”. The post received over 15,400 upvotes in two weeks in /r/animemes. This iteration was more relatable and funny than previous versions, which propelled the meme forward even more.

The meme had also become popular and had grown beyond Reddit. On May 11, 2021, a Redditor named PotatoBunny9519 posted a meme that received over 48,400 upvotes before it was removed. The format achieved an active presence on Reddit but spread out to other platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, iFunny, and YouTube.
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In December 2021, the meme grew even further when the YouTube user músicos Cínicos 鯉 created a series of YouTube videos related to Mr. Incredible becoming uncanny. In these videos, Mr. Incredible was transformed into differing degrees of uncanny and unsettling versions of himself, paired with unsettling music. The series received 867,000 views and 35,000 likes, ensuring the meme’s position in internet canon.
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Because the meme is so versatile, and the community is so creative, new variations and adaptations of Mr. Incredible Becoming Uncanny continue to be created all across the internet.

To further understand the meme, the following video can be watched:

#5 Conclusion

The Mr. Incredible meme was a simple scene in the film The Incredibles, but has grown into so much more than that, now being emotional relatability and just funny humor character in general. The meme originates on platforms like Reddit and Twitter, but through different uses it has grown into a universal representation of emotional highs and lows throughout life scenario. Because of its ability to transcend its meaning – the Mr. Incredible meme will forever hold a place in our culture and embody life’s emotional rollercoaster experiences.

Memes like Mr. Incredible allow us to communicate differently online. Complex emotions can be bundled into short, impactful representations reflecting philosophical thoughts or current trends. We all make these tiny connections from one another through humor, and humorous representations are relatable and a sense of shared experiences. Mr. Incredible represents how the internet connects everyone thinks alike or at least sees similar experiences. Overall, Mr. Incredible is a way to showcase how internet culture allows us to relate, express, and laugh together as a population.