In each edition of web_crawlr we have exclusive original content every day. On Saturday our Video Producer Kyle Calise explores the origins and history of the most iconic memes online in his “Meme History” column. If you want to read columns like this a day before everyone else, subscribe to web_crawlr to get your daily scoop of internet culture delivered straight to your inbox.
Children’s TV and movies are a trove of meme materials, and oftentimes the smaller and more earnest the character the better. The 2001 instant classic Monster’s Inc. is no exception—Mike Wazowski feels what he feels so intensely, and wears his heart on his sleeve so clearly that it’s no wonder he’s become any number of different memes a generation later.
Disney and Pixar are known for parodying other moments from pop culture, so when they chose to recreate the music video for Michael Jackson’s “She’s Out of My Life,” it was pretty in character for the studio.
In-universe, the scene is from a play inspired by the events of the movie itself, and at Mike Wazowski’s character’s nadir, he really puts everything he has into his performance, channeling his fellow Michael.
Fourteen years after the movie’s release, this screenshot was taken and posted to Funnyjunk.
Later, it was reposted by Twitter user “c0mic_sans” as an image macro. The caption? “Me drunk telling my life story even though no one asked.”
Eventually migrating to Tumblr and Reddit, “Mike Wazowski Singing” is mostly used to punctuate a moment when someone is going on and on about a thing they’re really passionate about—but no one else is having it.
Alternatively, it’s just used to exclaim how much a poster is obsessed with a particular artist or song.
Another Mike Wazowski moment is the famous Wazowski-Sulley face swap. In July of 2019 a Facebook Page titled “Sulley – Core” uploaded a different still from the movie, but with Mike Wazowski and Sulley’s faces swapped.
Originally spreading in largely Spanish-speaking circles, users eventually cropped out Sulley altogether, focusing only on Mike Wazowski’s body.
They fashioned it into a reaction image standing in for someone’s utter disappointment, feelings of falling flat, or ugliness.
There’s also “Mike Wazowski Crying”—a meme that explores the fair question of how exactly Mike Wazowski would cry.
But there are so many more Mike Wazowski memes.
There’s also “Do you Know Mike Wazowski?”
Mostly on TikTok, this is a prank in which someone is asked if they know Mike Wazowski—like he’s a real person.
Believe it or not, most are afraid to to admit that they don’t know who he is, or genuinely believe he sounds familiar.
Kid Mike Wazowski is another one, which makes fun of how things might—or might not—degrade over time.
And not about Mike Wazowski specifically but certainly related, we also have “Crying Boo”—used for when the world is just too much to handle.
The Monsters universe is jam-packed full of meme-able moments, and with good reason.
Cartoon-y moments make for easy jokes. It’d be a disservice to Mike’s many moods to turn him into just one meme, so it’s good that we get to use him over and over again, for whatever reason feels best in the moment.
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.
