Introduction

Clever Thoughts is a single-panel exploitable meme format that humorously illustrates how a person's intelligent ideas can become incomprehensible or absurd when they attempt to convey them.

Background

Clever Thoughts originated from a humorous diagram that depicts the transformation of clever ideas into poorly articulated expressions. The format gained traction on Twitter in 2020, and later inspired a variant known as Scribble Thoughts, featuring scribbled representations of thoughts.

How It Began

On July 10th, 2011, a Tumblr user named solowhale shared a diagram that humorously illustrated how clever thoughts can get miscommunicated. This post garnered over 87,600 likes and reblogs over nine years, laying the groundwork for the meme's popularity.

Internet Reaction

The meme remained relatively obscure until it gained significant traction prior to August 18th, 2014, when another Tumblr user, nippletowns, posted an edit that received over 630,000 likes and reblogs. The format surged in popularity in Spring 2020, especially on Twitter, where users began modifying the text to reflect articulate arguments that devolved into nonsensical expressions.