What Do You Meme?
What Do You Meme? is a party card game in which players match a caption card to a photo card and a rotating judge picks the funniest pairing. Created by Elliot Tebele, Elie Ballas and Ben Kaplan, it launched on Kickstarter on 14 June 2016.
Where What Do You Meme came from
2016 — the idea. The game was created by Elliot Tebele, Elie Ballas and Ben Kaplan, working out of New York. Tebele was already running one of the larger meme accounts on Instagram, which gave the project a distribution channel most tabletop launches do not have: an audience that was already looking at memes daily.
14 June 2016 — Kickstarter. The campaign went live with a modest 10,000 dollar goal. It was funded within four hours. Forbes covered it on the day it launched, framing the open question as whether an Instagram account could convert attention into a physical product. It closed on 19 July 2016 having raised more than 229,000 dollars from over 5,000 backers.
August 2016 — retail. The game went on sale, published by What Do You Meme, LLC.
2017 — the peak. It finished the year as the ninth best-selling game on Amazon, which is the number usually cited to explain how a Kickstarter party game ended up on supermarket shelves.
2023 — the company changes name. The publisher rebranded from What Do You Meme to Relatable, reported across the toy trade press. The reason given was range: the company had expanded well past one card game into adult and family party games, outdoor toys, plush, pet products and wellness items, with a catalogue reported at more than 150 products. Other titles from the same publisher include Buzzed, Incohearent, Let’s Get Deep and New Phone Who Dis? The flagship game kept its original name through the rebrand.
November 2024 — a named edition. Relatable announced an expanded version of What Do You Meme? developed with the internet personality Trisha Paytas.
What what do you meme actually means
The phrase does two jobs, and search traffic for it is split between them. One is a brand name. The other is a pun on what do you mean, which existed as a throwaway joke long before the game and is still typed in replies by people who have never seen the box.
| Where you see it | Literal reading | What it means in practice |
|---|---|---|
| On a box on a shelf | A question printed on packaging | The brand name of the party card game published by Relatable |
| what do you meme? typed in a reply | Asking someone to explain a meme | A pun on what do you mean — mock confusion, usually deflecting rather than asking |
| What do you meme by that | A misspelling | Deliberate. The joke is the substitution itself, and correcting it is the setup |
| Typed into a search box | A question about meaning | Almost always someone looking for the game, its rules, or where to buy it |
If you arrived here wanting the meaning of the word itself rather than the game, that is covered on what is a meme.
How the game actually plays
The structure is the judged-caption format familiar from Cards Against Humanity, with one substantive difference: the prompt is a photograph rather than a sentence with a blank in it. That changes the work. A fill-in-the-blank prompt constrains the grammar of your answer; a photograph constrains nothing, so the comedy comes from reframing an image rather than completing a line.
| Stage | What happens |
|---|---|
| Setup | Each player draws a hand of caption cards. One player takes the judge role for the round, called The Jerry in the published rules. |
| The prompt | The judge places a photo card face up, typically on the small easel supplied in the box. |
| The round | Every other player passes in one caption card face down, choosing the one they think fits the image best. |
| The verdict | The judge reads the submissions aloud and picks a winner on taste alone. There is no objectively correct answer. |
| Scoring | The winner keeps the photo card as a point. The judge role passes to the next player and a new round begins. |
Components. The base game is documented as 75 photo cards and 360 caption cards, for three to twenty or more players, labelled for ages 17 and over. Card counts vary between printings and editions, so the figure on the box you are holding is the one that applies.
What actually makes someone win. The rule that surprises new players is that you are not playing to the cards, you are playing to the judge. Because the winner is chosen purely on the judge’s taste, the optimal move is to pick the caption that particular person will laugh at, which is often not the funniest card in your hand. Groups that work this out play a noticeably different game from groups that do not.
Expansions and editions. The publisher sells themed expansion packs and licensed editions, including family versions built around properties such as SpongeBob SquarePants. Expansion packs generally supply extra cards rather than new rules, so they mix into the base deck.
Is What Do You Meme suitable for children?
The original game is labelled for ages 17 and over, and that label is doing real work — the caption deck contains adult humour, and the game is marketed as an adult party game rather than as a family one. The publisher separately sells family editions aimed at younger players with different card content. If you are buying for a mixed-age group, the edition on the box is the thing to check, not the title, because both share the same name.
What we do not know
- Card counts are printing-specific. The 75 photo cards and 360 caption cards figure is documented for the base game, but editions, regional releases and later printings differ, and no authoritative list of variations exists.
- The 2023 date for the Relatable rebrand comes from trade press coverage. Reporting on the exact timing is inconsistent, with some accounts placing it in 2024.
- The ninth best-selling game on Amazon in 2017 is a widely repeated figure with no primary Amazon source available to check it against.
- Details of the Trisha Paytas edition come from a company announcement rather than independent coverage.
- Whether the pun on what do you mean predates the game is not documented anywhere, and almost certainly cannot be. It is ordinary wordplay that people arrive at independently.
- Sales totals for the game have not been published in any form we could verify, so no figure appears on this page.
What Do You Meme? is the brand name of a commercial product owned by its publisher. This page describes the game as a matter of record; it is not a licensed, authorised or affiliated source, and it makes no claim to represent the publisher. If you were searching for how to identify a person in a meme image rather than for the game, that is who is this meme.
Frequently asked questions
What is What Do You Meme?
It is a party card game for three or more players. Each round one player judges, a photo card is placed face up, everyone else plays a caption card from their hand, and the judge awards the round to whichever pairing they find funniest.
Who created What Do You Meme?
Elliot Tebele, Elie Ballas and Ben Kaplan created it in 2016 in New York. It reached Kickstarter on 14 June 2016 and went on sale that August, published by What Do You Meme, LLC.
How much did the What Do You Meme Kickstarter raise?
The campaign asked for 10,000 dollars, passed that goal within four hours, and finished on 19 July 2016 with more than 229,000 dollars pledged by over 5,000 backers.
How many cards come in What Do You Meme?
The base game is documented as 75 photo cards and 360 caption cards. Print runs and editions differ, so the count printed on the box you are buying is the one that applies.
What age is What Do You Meme for?
The original game is labelled for ages 17 and over, because the caption humour is written for adults. The publisher also sells family editions with different card content aimed at younger players.
Is What Do You Meme the same as Cards Against Humanity?
They share the structure where a judge picks a winning card, but the prompt in What Do You Meme is a photograph rather than a sentence with a blank in it. That changes how the jokes get built, since you are reframing an image instead of completing a line.
Who publishes What Do You Meme now?
The company behind it rebranded from What Do You Meme to Relatable, reported by the toy trade press in 2023, after expanding into a much wider range of games and products. The flagship game kept its original name.
Is What Do You Meme a meme?
Not in the usual sense. It is a commercial product named after memes that uses meme images as prompts. The phrase also circulates independently as a pun on what do you mean, which is why searches for it return both the game and questions about meme culture.
Make a what do you meme
Load a blank canvas or your own image, add the caption, drag it where you want it, and download. Nothing is uploaded — the editor draws in your browser.
Drag any line on the image to move it.