Arthur's Fist
Where it came from
A close-up of the cartoon aardvark Arthur clenching his fist, pulled from the 1999 PBS Kids episode "Arthur's Big Hit." It took off as a reaction image on Twitter in 2016.
A tight shot of Arthur's yellow fist balled up at his side, knuckles clenched. That's the whole image. You post it when something fills you with quiet, helpless rage — the kind you can't actually do anything about. Slow wifi, a coworker taking credit for your idea, someone saying "per my last email." The fist says everything the caption sets up.
It works because it's pure suppressed fury with no outlet. Arthur is a children's-show character known for being gentle and reasonable, and here he's white-knuckling it. People pair it with a setup tweet ("when you hold the door and they don't say thank you") and let the fist land the punch. It spread fast in 2016 and basically became the default "I am barely keeping it together" reaction.
Still in heavy rotation. It outlasted most of its 2016 cohort because the emotion is universal and the image needs zero explanation — everyone has been Arthur's fist at some point this week.
Search interest, over time
↳ data courtesy of google trends
