The That Feeling When Knee Surgery Is Tomorrow meme, aka Blue Grinch meme, is a very specific feeling of knowing that your knee surgery is tomorrow. Its specificity is the joke, so in a way, it is also a meta-commentary and joke about meme culture generally. Often memes try to connect to a much broader feeling for a more general appeal, whereas the knee surgery one is much more narrow in scope.
On the other hand, its popularity definitely indicates that a lot of people get it. Or are at least getting knee surgery.
Meme basics:
- Meme creator: Unknown (first surfaced on MemeCreator.org)
- Meme type: Image Macro / Exploitable Format
- First appearance: Circa 2021
- Origin source: Instagram
- Peak popularity: October 2022
- Notable variations
- The blue Grinch smiling
- Dancing Drake
- Hopping squirrel
Origin and Spread
The meme began before the Blue Grinch made an appearance with an unknown MemeCreator.org user in 2021, according to Know Your Meme. The first representative of the sentiment was a squirrel. In the photo, the squirrel stands on its hind legs with its front paws up in the air, looking very excited about something. It went viral on the Instagram page @stupid.fricken.meme on April 6th, 2021.
A few months later, Redditor /u/ZyeAxe used a picture of Drake grooving out as a header for a listicle about knee surgery memes, which developed its own subreddit, /r/Kneesurgerymemes.
Popularity
The most popular version of the meme came from Instagram user @blinch.feels in a now-deleted post, showing the Blue Grinch iteration of the meme. It was reshared by the Instagram account Grubburd in October 2022, then it ended up on /r/Kneesurgerymemes in 2022.
Cultural context
The Knee surgery memes are stubbornly apolitical…so far. We’ve all learned how quickly a seemingly innocuous meme can take a turn. But it is a meme about memes. A meme for memeheads, if you will.
The post was shared to subreddit r/explainthejoke and here is the best explanation:
Meme variations
The words “The Feeling When Knee Surgery Is Tomorrow” can be paired with all sorts of images, usually ones where people look ecstatic. Here are some examples:
Recent use
People now use the meme sometimes in response to bad news or expectations, sort of as a way of saying they’re smiling through the pain of something. For example, in this exchange on X, formerly Twitter, where a post about the potential cost of a game upgrade received several blue Grinches in the replies.
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