Internet Culture

People are brutalizing ‘Young Sheldon’ with memes

The “Big Bang Theory” prequel is reviled in the meme world.

Photo of Jay Hathaway

Jay Hathaway

young sheldon memes

The Big Bang Theory is the most popular sitcom on TV, but critics hate it for relying on outdated stereotypes, leaning on formulaic jokes, and pandering to the lowest common denominator. Memes have long mocked “Bing Bong Theory‘s” bland idea of humor, so you can imagine what the internet is doing to the new spinoff series, Young Sheldon. But you don’t have to, because we’re about to show you.

Featured Video

Young Sheldon is about the early life of Sheldon Cooper, the smartest and most socially maladjusted character in Big Bang‘s roster of geek stereotypes. Sheldon is meant to be funny because of his arrogance and childlike insistence on having his way, but viewers are actually laughing at a bundle of unaddressed mental health issues. Now, they get to laugh at those unaddressed issues in a nine-year-old!

Some meme creators think this is a bad premise for a bad sitcom. Others just find the know-it-all Sheldon character unbearable and want to use him as a punching bag for their frustrations. As a result, a popular meme has sprung up to highlight people’s violent fantasies about Sheldon.

Here are a few gruesome examples:

Advertisement
young sheldon abortion meme young sheldon memes
sam_raph/Reddit
young sheldon rusting meme
thedok20/Reddit
young sheldon water park drowning meme
pokexchespin/Reddit
young sheldon meme dog attack
ratrat23/Reddit
Advertisement

Not all of them are violent, though. Some just make fun of the show’s premise of a kid who is smarter than the adults around him and completely insufferable about it:

young sheldon memes fortnight meme
thedok2o/Reddit

Others reimagine the Sheldon character as his own opposite, a dank and indifferent player with a “side chick”:

young sheldon shelbon dank meme young sheldon memes
apps4life/Reddit
Advertisement

The meme has quickly risen to popularity on Reddit’s r/dankmemes subreddit, and it’s already being met with a backlash:

young sheldon dankmemes meta meme young sheldon memes
adfriendlyyoutube/Reddit

Many there would rather see “spooky” memes as Halloween approaches, and they see the Young Sheldon craze as getting in the way:

young sheldon spooky meme
breadward_rejametov/Reddit
Advertisement
drake meme young sheldon vs spooky
krishnhm1/Reddit

Although the show is almost universally reviled on Reddit, Reddit is not the world. The world loves Young Sheldon. Even critics have rated it 75 percent “fresh” on review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes:

young sheldon rotten tomatoes meme
dougdimmadomeshat/Reddit

The Big Bang Theory prequel has only aired a single preview episode so far, but it scored the biggest rating of any new series (17.2. million viewers, and a 3.8 in the demo),” Entertainment Weekly reports.

Advertisement

You can hate it all you want, but you can’t make it go away.

 
The Daily Dot