The phrase “who is this meme” is usually people’s shorthand way of asking “who is the person/character in this meme image, and what’s the story behind it?”

What “who is this meme” means

When people say this on forums or in comments, they are typically:

  • Trying to identify a face or character that appears in a viral meme template.
  • Asking about the origin: which show, movie, creator, or event the meme image came from.
  • Sometimes also asking why it became popular, not just who it is.

So it’s less a specific meme name, and more a kind of question people keep repeating about lots of different meme templates.

How people usually find the answer

If you have a specific meme image and want to know “who is this meme,” typical approaches are:

  • Searching meme encyclopedias such as large public meme databases that document origins, characters, and first appearances.
  • Using reverse image search on the picture to trace it back to the original show, video, or social media post.
  • Asking on dedicated subreddits or forums (for example, “tip of my tongue” style communities) where people specialize in identifying unknown people or meme origins.

If you share the actual meme image or describe it (pose, text, style, where you saw it), it becomes possible to say exactly who the person or character is and what meme format it belongs to.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.