Forklift Certification memes poke fun at the exaggerated importance of earning a forklift operator license, often pairing the concept with absurd scenarios or ironic flexes. While some of them juxtapose the seemingly mundane achievement of obtaining forklift certification with triumphs and jobs like ‘rocket scientist’ and ‘U.S. Marine,’ others simply profess a genuine love and appreciation for the forklift.
Also, some euphemisms have since derived from the profession-based meme.
Meme basics
- Meme Creator: Unknown
- Meme Type: Macro
- First Appearance: 2016
- Origin Source: Facebook
- Peak Popularity: June 2022
What does it mean when someone says they are ‘Forklift Certified?’
To be Forklift Certified means, in the literal sense, to be certified to operate a forklift. The joke originally started to poke fun at people who brag about the achievement, as some believe it’s easy. However, the meme took a turn toward genuine love for the machinery and the job.
How did the Forklift Certified memes begin?
In 2016, a Facebook meme page dedicated to forklifts called Forklift Memes quietly popped up on the social network. After sharing some humorous forklift fail videos in late 2016 and early 2017, the memes started to take a turn in September 2017.
As the memes evolved, they started comparing forklift operators to different prestigious careers. In one instance, they joked the acronym CFO stands for ‘Chief Forklift Operator’ rather than ‘Chief Financial Officer.’
Days after the Facebook group began to go viral, Reddit’s r/ForkliftMemes was created. As memes spread on Reddit, there was a genuine split between memes that dealt with the daily life of someone with a Forklift Certification and others that joked about people who are Forklift Certified.
As the memes became more popular, people outside of that career and industry were trying to understand the joke, with questions about it appearing on Reddit and Imgur.
Is Forklift Certified slang?
Over the years, people who have seen the memes pop up have asked about the true intention behind it.
People have speculated that Forklift Certified has become a euphemism for something else, with Redditor u/MildlyOblivious asking if there was a hidden meaning.
Commenters largely agreed there is no hidden meaning. Although Urban Dictionary shares some NSFW interpretations of the phrase, most of the memes only acknowledge sexual undertones in saying that forklift operators are sexy. While the memes take different directions, they all have something to do with a literal forklift.
Forklift Certification memes on TikTok
TikTok has introduced another generation to forklift memes. Young forklift operators are showing that the joke is still alive and well, years after its beginnings.
Meme examples
More memes:
- ‘The government wants him killed on sight,’ and by ‘him,’ we mean this meme
- The ‘Women In Male Fields’ meme is paving the way for women to behave just as toxically as men
- All in on the Nothing Ever Happens meme
- What does the ‘Those Who Know 💀’ meme actually mean?
The internet is chaotic—but we’ll break it down for you in one daily email. Sign up for the Daily Dot’s web_crawlr newsletter here to get the best (and worst) of the internet straight into your inbox.
