How Did The Arthur's Fist Meme Grow So Popular? The Viral Meme Explained

Arthur's Fist is one of many reaction images released in 2016, considered by many as the 'golden age' of memes. It also saw the rise of other viral memes such as Spongegar and Evil Kermit, which saw considerable use on Twitter during their prime.

Arthur's fist, which was a screengrab from the titular series, was accompanied by a variety of different captions describing annoying or infuriating scenarios. But what is the Arthur's Fist meme? And how did a simple screen capture of a fist turn into such a viral meme phenomenon? Here's everything you need to know.

What Is Arthur?

Arthur is a 1996 animated series that originally aired on PBS Kids in the United States. the show was about the titular character, a brown anthropomorphic aardvark, and his collection of various animal friends. The show ran for 25 years, airing its last episode on February 21st, 2022.

Given how long it ran for, the show captured the hearts and minds of millions of kids around the world and was considered to be a very nostalgic show for anyone born during the 90s-2000s era. It often dealt with important issues facing families such as asthma, dyslexia, cancer, diabetes and autism spectrum disorder. As well as being a cult classic kids' show, it is also known for its wide variety of memes.

What Is The Arthur's Fist Meme?

The Arthur's fist meme is a screen capture of, as the name suggests, Arthur's clenched fist. The screengrab comes from Episode 1 Season 4 of Arthur titled "Arthur's Big Hit," which aired on September 6th, 1999. The episode features Arthur clenching his fist before punching his little sister D.W. for breaking his Bell X-1 model airplane (shown below).

The meme started gaining traction in July 2016, when user @AlmostJT posted a screen-captured image of Arthur's fist, describing the picture as "relatable" for displaying so many emotions in one fist. In the following months, the meme quickly grew in popularity all across social media, particularly on Twitter, for its relatability and ability to convey various frustrations and infuriating situations.

How Is Arthur's Fist Used In Memes?

After the original tweet was published on X (previously Twitter), on July 27th, the meme was then published on various social media sites, including Reddit on July 28th, 2016, where Reddit user /u/axedowg posted the image with the caption "when people say 'Harambe was just a gorilla'" to /r/blackpeopletwitter.

As the image grew more viral, it saw more usage by much more prominent public figures and news publications, including The Daily Dot and The Verge, which both released their respective articles on the meme. Later, celebrities like Lebron James and Chrissy Teigen both posted the meme on their social media platforms, with Teigen posting a meme in response to comments saying that her husband, John Legend, looks like Arthur.

On April 25th, 2018, Legend later posted an ad for Google Duo which even referenced his meme, garnering over 50,000 likes (shown below).

Thanks to #GoogleDuo, my stylist is always on-call. #ad pic.twitter.com/UqrysVpBYC

— John Legend (@johnlegend) April 25, 2018

For the full history of Arthur's fist, be sure to check out our Know Your Meme encyclopedia entry for more information.