About

The Weak Should Fear the Strong is an exploitable image in which one object showing physical dominance over another is paired with a Facebook comment that reads "the weak should fear the strong."

Origin

On December 8th, 2013, the Million Dollar Extreme Facebook page posted a gallery titled "I Love Beating Up D***s" with a gallery of Sam Hyde apparently choking women. The original image paired with the caption "the weak should fear the strong" is of Hyde putting a girl in a headlock (shown below).







In the first comment on the thread, Hyde wrote:

"taught this dirtbag a lesson she'll never forget… what's the point of swanky audrey hepburn glasses when you're blacked out and your neck is all fucked up? idk"

On December 10th, Facebook user Ryan Moriarty commented "the weak should fear the strong" on the image. While it is unclear where created the first image to mashing up the comment and the photo appeared, one of the earliest known examples was posted to halolzmafia on June 15th, 2014.





Spread

On February 7th, 2015, Hyde took to the Million Dollar Extreme subreddit to ask if he could obtain the photos for a video he was working on. There, a user directed him to Encyclopedia Dramatica, which has a full gallery of Hyde choking women. Later that year, variations began to appear on different websites. On July 22nd, user enzio submitted a Pepe variant to Funnyjunk (shown below).





On January 3rd, 2016, famous alt-right Twitter user Mike Cernovich tweeted the Hyde image in reference to the 2016 Malheur National Wildlife Refuge Standoff and the Sam Hyde Is The Shooter joke.





Over time, "The Weak Should Fear The Strong" became an in-joke caption on more wholesome posts, such as those involving animals. More variations began appearing on Facebook and Instagram in the coming year, becoming an exploitable meme in which the picture paired with the caption changes.

Various Examples





Search Interest

Know Your Meme Store

External References