Introduction

The Impostor of the Vent meme is inspired by the multiplayer game Among Us, featuring a Red crewmate and a Black impostor in a humorous dialogue format.

Background

Impostor of the Vent refers to a series of memes that utilize a two-panel image depicting a conversation between a Red crewmate and a Black impostor. The format gained traction on Reddit in September 2020, drawing similarities to the Panzer of the Lake meme.

How It Began

The meme traces its origins to September 3rd, 2020, when YouTuber Matongchi posted an Among Us-themed Monkey Circle meme that garnered over 137,400 views within three weeks. A reupload of this meme on Twitter by user @Fuckthepain received significant engagement, accumulating over 373,400 views, 16,100 retweets, and 48,000 likes shortly thereafter. On September 16th, Redditor Riyolen adapted the Panzer of the Lake format using two still images from Matongchi's video, where the Red crewmate asks the Black impostor for wisdom. This post achieved over 56,700 upvotes in the /r/dankmemes subreddit within a week.

Meme Evolution

On the same day as Riyolen's post, Redditor KrispyBudder shared the first derivative meme based on the format in /r/memes, which received more than 41,000 upvotes in a week. Another post by Redditor wcslater on September 17th also gained over 43,000 upvotes. Following these viral instances, the meme format became widely popular on Reddit in mid-September 2020, with many examples appearing in /r/dankmemes, /r/memes, and other subreddits. The meme also spread across Twitter, Facebook, and various online platforms.