Always Has Been Meme
The Always Has Been meme is a crude drawing of two astronauts above Earth. One realises something unsettling and asks whether everything has secretly been that way. The second, holding a gun to his back, confirms it calmly and is about to shoot him for noticing.
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Where the Always Has Been meme comes from
The template as everyone knows it was posted anonymously to 4chan in August 2018. It is a rough MS Paint cartoon: two figures in spacesuits float above the curve of the Earth, one looking out at the planet, the other behind him with a pistol drawn. The first says a line of the form Wait, it is all America? and the second answers Always has been. The gun is not decoration. It is the joke. The second astronaut is not agreeing, he is silencing a witness.
What came before that is where accounts split. Know Your Meme records a December 2016 Reddit post of an MS Paint astronaut discovering the Earth is flat as an early ancestor. The Meming Wiki instead points to an August 2016 Tumblr image of a bus stop marquee joking about Ohio. Both describe a pre-existing joke shape rather than the template itself, and neither is the drawing people use today. Sources disagree on the ancestry; they agree on August 2018 for the template.
The spread was slow and then sudden. It circulated in a low-key way through 2019, when the Ohio fill began to take over from America, and then exploded across Twitter, Reddit and Instagram in mid-2020, which is when most people first saw it. Know Your Meme files the whole thing under the Ohio wording, and that version is close to being the canonical example rather than one variant among many. Sources place the tipping point anywhere from late 2019 to June 2020, so treat 2020 as the year it went mainstream rather than the year it appeared.
Two details explain why it outlived its cohort. First, the drawing is deliberately bad, which makes it feel anonymous and reusable in a way a polished image never does. Second, the second line never changes. Always has been is a fixed constant, so the whole creative burden sits in one box, and a format with one variable is a format people can fill in three seconds.
What it means and when to use it
The format is not about surprise. It is about a thing that was true the entire time, that everyone else already quietly knew, and that you were not supposed to say out loud. If the revelation is genuinely new information, the template does not work. The whole gag depends on the answer being bored rather than shocked.
The gun adds the second layer: there is a cost to noticing. Somebody benefits from you not having worked this out. That is why the format fits institutional jokes, workplace jokes, conspiracy-shaped jokes and anything about systems that are quietly held together with string.
| Fill | Example shape | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| Correct: a permanent hidden truth | Realising the whole system rests on one fragile thing | Lands. The reveal was always true and someone was covering it |
| Correct: self-implicating | Realising your own habit or personality was the problem | Lands. Works because you are also the one being silenced |
| Correct: mundane conspiracy | Small systems with a boring secret at the centre | Lands hardest. Low stakes plus a drawn gun is the funniest gap |
| Wrong: an actual news event | Something that just changed or was just announced | Fails. It has not always been, so the reply makes no sense |
| Wrong: a preference | Stating that a thing is bad or good | Fails. Opinions are not revelations, and there is nothing to silence |
| Wrong: rewriting the second line | Replacing the reply with a custom punchline | Fails. The reply is the fixed part. Changing it deletes the format |
Captions that work
Two boxes. Box one is the question, always phrased as a realisation. Box two is the reply and should almost never be anything other than the three words. Keep box one short enough to read at thumbnail size, and make the reveal specific rather than philosophical.
- developerWait, it is all one unpaid maintainer in Nebraska? Always has been
- internetWait, the recipe story exists so the ad slots load? Always has been
- self-ownWait, my personality is just three podcasts? Always has been
- schoolWait, the group project was always me? Always has been
- foodWait, the fancy place reheats it too? Always has been
- techWait, the loading bar was decorative? Always has been
- familyWait, mum knew who broke the vase in 2009? Always has been
- officeWait, the printer was never plugged in? Always has been
- workWait, the meeting could have been an email? Always has been
- fitnessWait, the gym was never the hard part? Always has been
- petsWait, the cat has been walking on the counter all week? Always has been
- relatableWait, it is all sleep debt? Always has been
Variants and close relatives
| Format | How it differs | Use it instead when |
|---|---|---|
| Wait, It Is All Ohio? | The specific fill that carried the template into the mainstream, now almost the default reading | You want the joke everyone already recognises rather than a fresh fill |
| Text-only always has been | The reply used bare in comments and replies, no image | Somebody else has already set up the realisation for you |
| First Time? | A veteran tells a newcomer that the horror is routine | The joke is about someone being new to a bad situation, not about a hidden truth |
| They Do Not Know | A party scene where one person holds an unspoken thought | The secret is yours and nobody is threatening you over it |
| Conspiracy Keanu | Poses the revelation as a question with no answer | You want the wondering, not the confirmation |
| This Is Fine | Resignation to a visible disaster rather than a hidden one | Everyone can already see the problem |
Common mistakes
Revealing something that is actually new. This is the failure mode by a mile. If the thing started last week, the reply is factually wrong, and readers feel the mismatch even if they cannot name it.
Rewriting the second box. Custom punchlines in the reply slot kill the format. The reply is a constant. It is the reason the meme is legible at a glance in a scrolling feed.
Losing the question mark. Box one is a realisation being spoken aloud, not a statement. Without the question the two panels stop being a conversation.
Making box one too long. The drawing is small and the speech sits in open space. Anything past about ten words becomes unreadable at feed size and the joke arrives after the scroll.
Using it for genuine outrage. The reply is bored. If you are actually angry about the thing you are revealing, the template undercuts you, because it says the situation is old news and nobody cares.
Flipping the astronauts. The one with the gun answers. Captions that put the reveal in the mouth of the armed astronaut break the small piece of storytelling the drawing is doing.
Limits and etiquette
This is a format with a date stamp on it. It read as fresh in 2020 and now reads as a well-worn classic, closer to a stock phrase than a trend. That is not fatal, because the reply has entered ordinary speech and people use it without the image at all, but it does mean nobody is impressed that you know the template. The fill has to do the work.
The Ohio version specifically is exhausted. It has been through several years of Ohio jokes and lands as filler in most places now. If you use Ohio, you are quoting the meme rather than making one.
Worth being aware of the gun. It is a scribbled pistol in a cartoon and almost always reads as harmless, but the beat of the joke is one person shooting another for finding something out. Aimed at a named real person, or dropped into a thread about an actual shooting or a real workplace dispute, it stops being abstract. Keep the target a system, a habit or yourself.
On rights: the drawing is an anonymous third-party image with no identified author. We host the frame for captioning as user-generated commentary and remove anything on valid request under the takedown policy at /dmca/.
Frequently asked questions
What is the Always Has Been meme?
It is a two-panel drawing of two astronauts above Earth. One realises that everything has secretly been one thing all along, and the second, holding a gun on him, replies that it always has been.
Where did the Always Has Been meme come from?
The template was posted anonymously to 4chan in August 2018 as an MS Paint drawing, with the original punchline being about America. No creator has ever been identified.
When did the meme become popular?
It circulated quietly through 2019 as the Ohio version took hold, then spread widely across Twitter, Reddit and Instagram during 2020. Sources place the tipping point anywhere from late 2019 to mid 2020.
Why is one astronaut holding a gun?
The gun is the punchline. The second astronaut is not simply agreeing, he is about to shoot the first one for noticing something he was not supposed to notice.
How many text boxes does the template have?
Two. The first is the realisation, phrased as a question, and the second is the reply, which is normally left as the three fixed words.
Can I change the second line?
You can, but the format usually breaks when you do. The reply is the constant that makes the meme recognisable at a glance, so all the creative work belongs in the first box.
Why is Ohio in so many versions?
The Ohio fill went viral before the others and became the version most people saw first. Know Your Meme even files the template under that wording, so it now reads as the default rather than a variant.
Is the Always Has Been meme still usable?
Yes, though it is old enough to be a standard rather than a trend. The phrase has entered everyday speech, so a post only lands if the realisation in the first box is specific and genuinely true.