Where Did The Image Showing Bugs Bunny Saying 'No' Come From? The Origin Of The Meme Explained

Bugs Bunny may be the one cast member from Looney Toons who has seen the most longevity throughout the internet's different meme eras, but a screengrab of him carefully enunciating the word "No" is perhaps a meme he is best featured in. The image shows a close-up of the cartoon character looking off to the left, his lips pursed and his tongue pressed to the roof of his mouth. He is poised to drop a scathing response, as he is often wont to do in the cartoons.

The snarky meme is often used as a reaction image on sites like Tumblr and Reddit, tacked onto the end of a winding or blasé argument not worth pursuing. Here's the Looney Toons episode the image of Bugs Bunny saying 'No' stems from, and how it came to be the popular come back it is online today.

Where Does The Image Of Bugs Bunny Saying 'No' Originate?

The image of Bugs Bunny saying "No" originates from a Looney Toons cartoon titled, "The Big Snooze." Originally aired on October 5th, 1946, the cartoon shows Bugs Bunny drinking a bottle of "Hare Tonic" to save himself from falling down.

The earliest known use of the image pictured above was posted to Tumblr by whyx3 in February 2015, rotated 90 degrees.

How Did The Image Of Bugs Bunny Saying 'No' Turn Into A Meme?

Following the aforementioned Tumblr post, the image of Bugs Bunny pursing his lips spread as a reaction meme on sites like Facebook and Twitter. Before the text "No" was added to the image, it was used to reference drinking, as seen in the Facebook posts shown below.

It wasn't until 2019 that we received the earliest recorded meme featuring a zoomed-in and cropped image of Bugs Bunny alongside text that read, "No," with Redditor /u/asofi00 taking credit for the earliest known post using the image, gathering nearly 30,000 upvotes in a week.

What Are Some Examples Of The Bugs Bunny Saying 'No' Meme?

For the full history of the Bugs Bunny Saying No, be sure to check out Know Your Meme's encyclopedia entry for more information.