Overview

The Opposites Attract meme template, originally created by webcomic artist Stonetoss, illustrates unexpected alliances in a tug-of-war scenario.

Background

Opposites Attract, also known as Tug of War, is a cartoon by Stonetoss that features a tug-of-war event where participants are shocked to discover their teammates and opponents. First shared in 2018, this cartoon gained traction as a meme format, especially within political discourse.

How It Began

On September 11th, 2018, Stonetoss released a four-panel cartoon titled "Opposites Attract" on his website. The cartoon depicts a libertarian participating in a tug-of-war, surprised to find a fascist on his team while a communist and a capitalist oppose them, leading to the bewildered comment, "Huh?"

Meme Evolution

The earliest known edits of the cartoon began appearing online in early 2019, with the first discovered edit posted on January 12, 2019, by iFunny user commie, featuring a Bone Hurting Juice variant that garnered 14 smiles over five years. On February 9, 2019, Redditor SpookyBolshevik shared a meme that achieved over 130 upvotes on /r/stupidpol.

On August 31, 2020, a viral version was shared by iFunny user Colaws, focusing on nuclear energy discourse, which received over 13,200 smiles in three years. As the years progressed, the meme saw widespread circulation across various platforms, including numerous reposts on iFunny and Reddit.

Starting in 2021, users began creating various iterations of the meme, labeling the characters to highlight unexpected alliances and conflicts of interest. For instance, on March 2, 2022, iFunny user Animefaganismo17_2 shared a meme related to the 2022 Russian Invasion of Ukraine, earning over 7,600 smiles in two years. Additionally, on September 17, 2022, Redditor Solid_Snark posted an Execute Order 66 meme based on this format, receiving over 5,500 upvotes in the /r/PrequelMemes subreddit within a year.