Why Can’t You Just Be Normal?

Why Can’t You Just Be Normal? is a memorable quote from the psychological horror film, The Badabook, where the protagonist of the film poses the question to her child, who replies with a shriek.

Online, a screenshot of the scene is used as an exploitable object labeling meme, appearing on image macros, as well as GIFs.

It also spawned a large number of YouTube parodies and edits, amassing a large variety of memes online.

Why can’t you just be a normal Pikachu?

The “Why Can’t You Just Be Normal?” meme originates from the 2014 Australian psychological horror film, titled The Badabook.

It depicts a young boy, with social issues (portrayed by Noah Wiseman), who believes a fictional character from a children’s book is real. His struggles are shared by his mother (played by Essie Davis).

One of the scenes depicts the young boy screaming in the back seat of the car, while his stressed out mother bursts and asks “Why Can’t You Just Be Normal?”, to which the child responds with another shriek.

Although the scene was uncanny, it didn’t catch the attention of audiences until 2017, when various exploitable memes were created and shared on sites like Reddit, 9GAG and Instagram.

Soon, various YouTube parodies and other edits were shared online, further spreading the “Why Can’t You Just Be Normal?” meme among the online community.

It quickly spread to a variety of other sites, such as Imgur and Tumblr.

Since then, the meme remains a popular image macro format, sometimes still appearing in new posts, years after its creation.

• Rogers Movie Nation – Movie Review: “The Babadook”