Meaning
What does Arthur Fist mean?
Arthur fist refers to a popular reaction image macro, taken from the children’s animated series, Arthur.
The image macro depicts the clenched fist of the titular protagonist and is predominantly used online to express frustration and anger.
It may also be encountered as a reaction GIF, as well as a series of YouTubePoop videos, remixing the original scene.
Origin
What's the origin of Arthur Fist?
“Arthur fist” is seen in a closeup in the Season 4 Episode 1b of Arthur, which first aired in the United States on October 4th, 1999.
The episode presents viewers with D.W, the sister of the protagonist breaking Arthur’s Bell X-1 Model Airplane, which compels the Angery Madlad to clench his fist in a closeup.
Arthur then proceeds to give in to his fury and Slaps his sister off camera harder than the Batman Slapping Robin memes.
The first time the scene was posted online as an image macro was on July 27th, 2016, when Twitter user @AlmostJT shared it with the captions praising the emotional variety, this single frame conveys.
Spread & Usage
How did Arthur Fist spread?
The first meme created with the “Arthur fist” template was uploaded to Reddit’s r/blackpeopletwitter sub by u/axedowg on July 28th, 2016, amassing a lot of upvotes and comments in a short span of time.
Simultaneously, a Twitter feed with the title Arthur__Hands was launched, dedicated to the meme.
Various iterations of the template swarmed the internet in the period to come, appearing on sites ranging from Facebook, Twitter, Instagram to Reddit, iFunny, 9GAG and me.me.
“Arthur fist” was even embraced by celebrities like LeBron James and John Legend, the latter of which cameoed as Arthur in a Google Duo commercial.