“He protec, but he also attac,” a meme that first emerged in 2016, is a humorous misspelling of “he protects, but he also attacks.” It’s always paired with two images of the same character, one in a defensive stance and the other taking an aggressive posture.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BQdorbrh9B9/
It’s a great meme, but it’s not enough merely to protec and attac in the year 2017. Now, you have to do more.
The updated version of the protec/attac meme, which became prominent in mid-July, adds a third panel. It’s another word that near-rhymes with protec and attac, and it’s specific to the character in question. President Obama, for example, protecs and attacs, “but most importantly, he Barrac.”
![barack obama protec attac meme](https://uploads.dailydot.com/b71/17/5fadb77966413aa9.jpg?auto=compress&fm=pjpg)
The addition of a third, character-specific panel has added new life and new creativity to a meme that seemed to have stagnated. Instead of finding two photos, a meme creator now has to choose three photos and a caption. It’s literally twice as much meme as it was before!
The expansion of the protec/attac format seems to have started with this meme of Pokémon character Pikachu, which modified the original meme by removing “attac” altogether:
![pikachu protec prospec](https://uploads.dailydot.com/92e/4c/1cd4c66dfa71a0bc.jpg?auto=compress&fm=pjpg)
But the fully-evolved form of the meme leaves “attac” in place and relies on a third panel for the punchline:
![donald duck protec attac meme](https://uploads.dailydot.com/d5e/1e/1c21fbd0885136b7.jpg?auto=compress&fm=pjpg)
![bin laden protec attac meme](https://uploads.dailydot.com/946/8b/9597f7c17b1b6406.jpg?auto=compress&fm=pjpg)
![stefan karl robbie rotten protec attac meme](https://uploads.dailydot.com/878/0d/fd5f9f08c271c3f5.jpg?auto=compress&fm=pjpg)
![he protect he attac he quac duck meme](https://uploads.dailydot.com/21a/7e/dc891f38e40cccdc.jpg?auto=compress&fm=pjpg)
![nokia protec attac meme](https://uploads.dailydot.com/2d8/05/b0efb1e7d5bb2b6d.jpg?auto=compress&fm=pjpg)
The possibilities for characters and verbs that end in -ct are virtually endless, which gives this meme plenty of legs. On Reddit‘s r/dankmemes, a useful barometer of which memes are about to break out into mainstream success, “he protect/he attac” has grown so popular that some posters are already sick of it. In fact, they’ve started using “protec/attac” to “attac” the meme itself:
![protec attac anti-meme with squidward](https://uploads.dailydot.com/896/32/f8a2025164d12eae.jpg?auto=compress&fm=pjpg)
![he protec he attac pepe](https://uploads.dailydot.com/ccb/63/a880501faf8fd14c.jpg?auto=compress&fm=pjpg)
Despite the cries that this is a “normie” meme, it actually started with a photo you’re not likely to see on Facebook, showing a naked guy with a lightsaber:
![original protec attac meme lightsaber](https://uploads.dailydot.com/49e/f9/ff4c7612d32746a2.jpg?auto=compress&fm=pjpg)
The original joke hinged entirely on the misspelling and the bizarre images, but now the meme is so much more: it’s all about wordplay and references. It protec, it attac, but most importantly, it connec with meme communities from Reddit to Instagram and beyond.