Meaning
What does Then Perish mean?
Then perish is a zoomed in picture of Barack Obama’s eyes with a red filter, that is used as a reaction meme.
The meme usually occurs in direct message dialogues, and it’s generally applied to express disdain and superiority towards someone else.
then perish obama eyes pic.twitter.com/ae1uO5w000
— reactions (@reactjpg) November 22, 2019
Origin
What's the origin of Then Perish?
This specific photo of the former president of the United States was first used as a meme on Tumblr in 2017.
The post contained a series of screenshots from a messaging dialogue, ending with one saying “anything for mr obama” and the other party responding with the red-tinted photo and then sending the text “then perish”.
Spread & Usage
How did Then Perish spread?
The then perish meme has initially surfaced on various threads of Tumblr, generating hundreds of thousands of reposts.
Eventually it was introduced to the folks of Reddit, when a user named urmomlolroasted posted the original screenshots and meme to /r/Tumblr.
External resources
- Medium.com – The Internet