The Brief: An image of three Mudskipper fish in an apparent 2 vs. 1 face-off has inspired a new meme format.

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Mudskippers are amphibious fish known for walking on (muddy) land and breathing air. Now, they’ve crawled their way into the world of memes, starring in an image macro format of surprised-looking, lizard-like Mudskipper fish in the mud.

Mudskipper memes started spreading widely on Reddit on August 13th, 2020 after user S2keepup posted the image in r/PhotoshopBattles. Redditors replied with their best Photoshopped versions of the picture. After that, the picture started spreading on various meme subreddits including r/memes and r/DankMemes. Memes usually label the one fish that appears to be rising out of the ground as a shocking spectacle and the two gaping Mudskippers as a surprised and impressed audience.

Male Mudskippers jump up to 1 meter in the air to attract females, but it’s unclear (to StayHipp’s resident nature experts) if this photo depicts a mating ritual,  a fish entering or exiting a hole in the ground, a fight, or something else entirely.

Long live the mudskippers from memes

He do be groovin tho from dankmemes

leave some pussy for the rest of us bruh from dankmemes

Pretend i have a girl pls from dankmemes

The Mudskipper meme format has spread beyond Reddit to Twitter as well.

There’s also a version of the format which adds a second panel to show a bird pulling a Mudskipper out of the mud, adding a dark twist to the original meme.

Invest in mudskipper cheering and eagle eating on of them! (Yes I updated the template) from MemeEconomy