If you've been in meme circles for some time, you've likely seen a picture that looks absolutely innocent at first, with no hint of "meme" at all.

You might have even thought to yourself, "What's this? Did someone post this by mistake? I don't get it …" only to check the comment section and see multiple people absolutely losing their minds over the picture.

If this has happened to you, don't worry, as we're here to explain the simple yet complicated process that is "Loss," the iconic Ctrl+Alt+Del (CAD) webcomic and meme — once called "the internet's greatest meme."

What Is "Loss" and Where Does It Come From?

Put simply, Loss is a webcomic under the same name that was created by Ctrl+Alt+Del and released online on June 2nd, 2008. The comic was seen as a form of pushing back from the creator to the fandom, who had long said that the comic was getting stale in its tone and needed something more.

This resulted in a non-sequitur comic in which a character suffers a miscarriage, shown in four panels with zero context.

Due to the seemingly random, no-context approach that the comic takes in trying to shift the tone, the community lashed back, taking the joke and running with it at the same time that other high-profile webcomics did as well.

After the community dogpile was done, the meme persisted in various forms with people creating memes that obviously reference it in another context, forcing it into as many sub-memes as possible, in a similar fashion to Morbius in that the community and internet refused to let the dead meme rest.

The Continuation of Loss Through The Years

Long after the meme's original run was done, it continued to live on in the form of people saying "Is this Loss?" every time a movie screenshot or video game image was uploaded that contained a form next to one that was laying flat, giving birth to the "I II II I _" minimalist format of Loss, which only increased the memes as it was able to be covertly inserted into everyday memes as a "meme-within-a-meme," something for eagle-eyed meme fans to notice and call attention to.

This running gag of trying to sneak Loss into images itself became its own version of the meme that has lasted over a decade, completely running the joke so ragged that it's now essentially "beating the dead horse's dead grandchild," and it still shows no signs of stopping.

The ways in which Loss has attempted to be shown are numerous, with poetry even being used as a way to transmit the meme to others.

How to Use Loss In Memes

If you're making a Loss meme, it's really quite simple. You can either make it a four-panel meme in which you have one character in the first panel, two characters standing upright in the second and third panel, and then the fourth panel features one character noticeably higher than the second character that's to their right.

This recreation has since become known online as a "Losslike," and are often minimalist in style, though there are many variations.

Another fun alternative to doing a four-panel comic is to include the Loss symbol, or otherwise represent the meme, by utilizing the background environment.

In this given example, Loss can be seen on the left side, represented on the board by the four-panel comic on the board showing I II II I _.

When Noticing Loss

If you are tricked by someone posting a Loss meme, the correct way to respond to the situation is to simply ask, "Is This Loss?" and then leave it at that, as that's the preferred way by people to signal to each other that they understand the meme and are properly fooled by it.

---

For the full history of the Loss meme, be sure to check out Know Your Meme's encyclopedia entry here for even more information.