Introduction

The 'Dig the Fucking Hole' meme is a humorous exploitable format depicting an armed soldier compelling a seemingly delusional individual to perform arduous tasks like digging holes or mining.

Background

This meme format originated from a comedic take on communist themes, gaining significant traction online in late 2022. Users began altering the characters and speech bubbles, creating a variety of humorous interpretations.

Meme History

The genesis of this meme dates back to September 27, 2021, when user JJones shared a comic depicting a supporter of a communist revolution being coerced by a soldier to dig holes, despite his aspirations to become a video game streamer. The earliest known reupload appeared on September 30, 2021, by Memedroid user Dranklestein, garnering over 440 votes on the platform within a year.

Internet Reaction

The meme gained popularity on October 2, 2021, with a notable edit shared by Twitter user @vrilbro, which received over 20 retweets and 130 likes in a year. Throughout October 2021, the original meme circulated widely, particularly on Reddit, where users began creating Political Compass versions. Notably, Redditor Regionalyonker35 posted a variant on October 3 that achieved over 1,200 upvotes in one year. A reversed variant emerged on January 26, 2022, featuring a character forced to write books, which received over 1,500 reblogs and 3,500 likes on Tumblr. By September 27, 2022, the format continued to thrive, with a variant from Twitter user @jonnysocialism amassing over 70 retweets and 680 likes in three months.