Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has been a staple of American popular culture since the 1990s. His impressive transformation from a professional wrestler to an A-list Hollywood actor and film producer has earned him many accolades. Those include his being named one of Time’s most influential people in 2015 and 2019. But along the way, the Rock also cemented himself in the history of the internet by being a consistent force within the world of memes. The Rock Meme is a popular search term for a reason—here are some of the most popular ones.
The Rock’s eyebrow raise meme
During this wrestling career, the Rock was known for his catchphrases and his signature eyebrow raise. This wasn’t just any eyebrow raise—the Rock would make the facial expression by lifting one eyebrow, lowering the other, and tilting his head to the side.
The expression became so synonymous with the wrestler that he continued to use it after becoming an actor. It also became widely used as a meme, especially as a reaction image.
The reaction became even more popular when the Rock joined TikTok, with several of his posts from 2021 featuring the signature move. Users online soon began to edit videos to create a version of Drakeposting, except in this case, people imposed the eyebrow raise to imitate the Rock’s look.
The Rock driving meme
The Rock driving meme is a comic-style multi-panel of images based on stills from the 2009 movie “Race to the Witch Mountain.” The format of the conversation usually follows the movie’s protagonist Jack (The Rock) driving and asking a question to Sara, who’s in the back seat. Sara’s answer is a shocking declaration, which prompts Jack to turn back with a look of surprise.
The original panel was posted in 2009 by Newgrounds Forum user, MetalStar, and quickly other users began to remix the screen captures. By May 2011, the meme generator website Quickmeme had added the panel, and over the next three years, the page generated upwards of 41,000 submissions.
The Dwayne ‘The Wok’ Johnson meme
The Work refers to a series of memes in which the Rock is photoshopped to look like a Chinese or Asian person. The meme originated in 2015, when the Facebook page LADBible posted a photograph of an Asian man who resembled the Rock.
In 2020, Redditor u/naisu_omuricesu posted a screenshot of the results from a face change filter, using the Rock as an example with Asian, European, and Indian features. A month later, a cropped image of just the Asian version was posted to 9GAG, with the caption “Dwayne ‘The Wok’ Johnson.”
When’s the next ‘The Rock’ meme coming?
With his social media updates, his larger-than-life personality, and even larger physique, the Rock keeps breaking the internet with an almost continuous cycle of memes. And with his career getting bigger all the time—even revealing to The Guardian that multiple political parties wanted him to run for U.S. President, and oddsmakers giving him decent odds to win—we look forward to many more memes in the years to come.