The format first achieved widespread use in late June 2021 after an explicit version created by an unknown author gained virality. On May 14th, 2021, the author of the comic, AlexMaestro, posted an alternative version of the meme to /r/memes, where it received over 23,400 upvotes prior to being removed (shown below, right). The post received over 13,500 upvotes in /r/teenagers in six months (shown below, left).
On May 12th, 2021, Redditor eligo_xv3 posted the earliest known meme based on the comic, pairing the image with a Shrek reaction image.