About

Exploitables are a meme template in which a single image is manipulated through various means to achieve the intended, humorous effect. This can involve replacing words in the original image, adding words to the original image, or manipulating positions of objects in the image to change the original's meaning. Exploitables often grow popular due to the fact they don't require extensive photo-editing knowledge to create and can be modified by basic programs such as MS Paint or Photoshop. Multiple types of exploitable meme templates arose throughout the late 2000s and 2010s, and many of the most recognizable memes are exploitables, such as Loss, Distracted Boyfriend and Galaxy Brain.

Origin

Exploitables began becoming a regular part of internet memes in 2006. That year saw the rise of one of the first popular exploitable templates, Bitches Don't Know. The meme originated when MySpace user Rich Owens wore a shirt saying "Bitches Don't Know Bout My Dick" (shown below, left) The photo was edited by multiple users to make the shirt read something else (examples shown below, center, right). This was one of the first "single-pane" exploitable templates (an exploitable based off one image) to grow into a popular meme.

Spread

On April 13th, 2009, Urban Dictionary ^[1] user patsybunbury posted a definition for "exploitable" that reads, "Adjective used to describe an image, often a movie or cartoon still, which can be easily captioned, edited or labelled in a variety of ways for the purposes of humour" (shown below).

Throughout meme history, there have been multiple popular genres of exploitable memes.

4-panel Movie Scenes

4-panel Movie Scenes refers to scenes of movies shortened into multi-pane stills over which users could add original dialogue. Some of these include The Rock Driving, Dark Knight 4-Pane, and We Need To Go Deeper (examples shown below).

This genre continued to be a popular template throughout the 2010s, inspiring memes such as Gru's Plan and What Did It Cost? Everything (examples shown below).

Webcomics

Webcomics have proven to be a reliable source of exploitable memes, as meme creators can easily alter the dialogue or characters in the original strip to create their own joke. One of the most famous webcomic exploitables is "Loss," a 4-panel comic from Ctrl+Alt+Del which has inspired parodies since first being published in 2008.

Several webcomic artists have seen multiple instances where their comics have been turned into exploitable templates, including K.C. Green, the artist behind This Is Fine, Staredad and others (examples shown below, top), and Shen Comix, who was the creator behind exploitable templates Missed The Point and My Bike Got Stolen Recently (examples shown below, bottom).

Things I Don't Like Webcomics

Things I Don't Like Webcomics are webcomics altered such that one of the panels in the webcomic makes a point about a thing the creator doesn't approve of. The trend became a very popular style of meme, particularly in 2017, when many different comics appeared and were exploited in similar ways.

Object Labeling

Object Labeling refers to a style of meme in which a user will add labels to characters or objects in an image to alter its meaning, similar to common practices in political cartoons. These began growing particularly popular in 2017, spearheaded by the popularity of Distracted Boyfriend (examples shown below).

Various Exploitables

Search Interest

External References