What Is The 'What Weasels Look Like' Meme? Cartoonists Comparing Stylized And Realistic Animal Drawings Explained

Popular animations and cartoons often use easily recognizable tropes to convey more with less in their art, and creating exaggerated stylized animals and people is one way to show, not tell, a key aspect of their personalities.

However, one Twitter / X artist's "gripe" about how weasels specifically are portrayed in Western media has caught the snark of cartoonists on the app, who are now making jokes comparing animals with their stylized animated counterparts.

Here's a recap of the What X looks like vs. how X draws them meme that grew popular on X in February 2024.

Why Are Artists Saying 'This Is My Gripe' On Twitter?

In early February 2024, X user @peloriq posted an image comparing two drawings of weasels, one more realistic labeled as "What weasels look like," and one more cartoonish labeled as "How western cartoonists usually draw them." The image of the more rounded and sweet-looking weasel compared to the, well, weaselly looking one was captioned, "This is my gripe."

How Did 'This Is My Gripe' Become A Meme?

Soon after @peloriq's post went viral, various artists on X / Twitter began satirizing the post by sharing more comparisons of animals in real life and their cartoon counterparts. X user @Nebla_idk posted a joke comparing what birds look like and how "Angry (Birds)" cartoonists draw them, while @von_cosmo posted a version of the image comparing sea sponges in real life to SpongeBob SquarePants.

Later that month, X user @ess_n_stuffs posted a version of the image comparing what raccoons look like with how "Regular" artists draw them, in reference to Regular Show, while X user @Mania4lyf3 compared hedgehogs in real life to Sonic the Hedgehog.

What Are Some More Memes Comparing Animals With Their Cartoon Counterparts?

For the full history of "What X looks like vs. how X draws them, be sure to check out Know Your Meme's encyclopedia entry for more information.