Alright then, keep your secrets

It shows “Frodo”, played by actor Elijah Woods, smirking while looking at something/someone outside of the frame, mockingly saying “Alright then, keep your secrets.”

The meme is used in a humorous, sometimes ironic manner, when the answer is in fact right in front of you, but you can’t get to it or understand it, therefore you perceive it as a secret.

In most settings the person saying the phrase is presented as dumb.

via MEME

The image is cut from a scene in the first movie of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, that premiered on December 19th, 2001.

In the movie, “Frodo” is originally talking to the (then) grey wizard “Gandalf”. “Frodo” tells “Gandalf” about his uncle “Bilbo”s strange behaviour, and suspects that the wizard knows the reason.

As “Gandalf” only responds with silence, “Frodo” says the iconic phrase.

In 2017 an isolated clip of the particular scene was uploaded to Youtube, and in 2018 the first memes arrived.

The very first meme was shared on Facebook in June 2018. It shows a cut of the scene where “Frodo” is smirking, with the caption “When I am high and talking to a tree but he won’t answer”, and the catchphrase as subtitle.

A week later, Twitter user @mikediva shared a similar meme, but rather than talking to a tree, he referred to talking to his cat.

The meme’s popularity kept growing on various social media and meme platforms, and is particularly enjoyed by LOTR fans.

• Know Your Meme – All Right Then, Keep Your Secrets