Meaning
What does It Ain’t Much But It’s Honest Work mean?
It Ain’t Much, But It’s Honest Work refers to a popular image macro series online, depicting an obese farmer with the titular captions.
It is mostly used on social media sites and meme pages, to express the simplicity and wholeheartedness of a performed task. The meme itself may be seen on multi-panel image reaction image macros, as well as GIFs and even YouTube videos.
Origin
What's the origin of It Ain’t Much But It’s Honest Work?
The meme was created, using a photo from an article, posted by the United States Department of Agriculture on October 10th, 2014, titled “Soil Health Campaign Turns Two: Seeks to Unlock Benefits on- and off-the-Farm.” The photo depicted the Ohio farmer David Brandt.
The first image macro meme, that featured the photo was posted on December 15th, 2018, by Reddit user, pettergra on the r/MemeEconomy sub, addig the iconic captions “It Ain’t Much, But It’s Honest Work.”
The post gained a lot of attention on the site, amassing a large number of likes and comments in a short span of time, eventually appearing in reposts across the web.
Spread & Usage
How did It Ain’t Much But It’s Honest Work spread?
The Final Form of the meme was created on January 3rd, 2019, when Reddit user yothisisyo posted a different variation, having replaced the text at the bottom of the image, to resemble subtitles.
“It Ain’t Much But It’s Honest Work” became an iconic meme, spreading on to most online platforms, including Reddit, Tumblr, Twitter, as well as Instagram meme pages and Facebook groups, mostly being used as a reaction image macro, paired with setup captions, that place the meme in context.
The meme remains a staple of humility and being contented with what one already possesses. It can be encountered as an image macro, GIF, while also appearing in YouTube videos in some form.
External resources
- Meming World – But It’s Honest Work