Meaning
What does One Does Not Simply mean?
The phrase One Does Not Simply has become a popular internet meme used to express the difficulty or impossibility of achieving a particular task.
The phrase is often accompanied by an image macro featuring the character Boromir from the film “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring,” played by actor Sean Bean.
The image macro includes the text ”One Does Not Simply” followed by a statement that highlights the challenge or absurdity of the task at hand.
Origin
What's the origin of One Does Not Simply?
The origin of the “One Does Not Simply” meme can be traced back to a scene in the 2001 film “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring,” directed by Peter Jackson.
In this scene, a council is held at Elrond‘s palace in Rivendel, contemplating the destruction of the One Ring. It is here that Boromir, played by Sean Bean, utters the now-famous line: “One Does Not Simply Walk Into Mordor.” This line has been parodied and adapted on the internet to represent various challenging or unattainable tasks, making it a popular meme.
Spread & Usage
How did One Does Not Simply spread?
Various memes were created, the most common being the ones that replace either “walk” or “Mordor” in the quote.
The meme was present on the internet at least since 2004, on YTMND and had spread to every corner of the web, even loosely related to memes, from Tumblr, Reddit and Facebook to 9GAG.
Even Google maps wrote a warning that “One Does Not Simply Walk Into Mordor,” to a walking route between locations called The Shire in Wisconsin and Mordor in Illinois – a similar feat to the Do a Barrel Roll easter egg.
The meme even appeared on the tv series, Gravity Falls in 2015.
