It's a Metaphor

About

It’s a Metaphor refers to a photo meme inspired by a scene from the 2014 teen drama The Fault in Our Stars which features the teenage protagonist holding an unlit cigarette in his mouth as a metaphor. The meme involves two types of images, a photo edited so someone’s mouth is filled with a comical amount of cigarettes or edited so their mouth is filled with something else dangerous.

Origin

On April 13th, 2014, a clip from the teen drama The Fault in Our Stars was played at the MTV Movie Awards. The film is an adaptation of the John Green young adult novel^[1] which was released on January 10th, 2012. The clip features Gus, a teenager at a cancer support group, puts a cigarette in his mouth in the company of Hazel Grace, a teenager with lung cancer. When Hazel expresses digust that he would smoke, Gus explains:

“It’s a metaphor see. You put the thing that does the killing right between your teeth, but you never give it the power to kill you.

The clip was uploaded to Mega Trailers’ YouTube channel^[2] on April 14th. In less than a week the video gained over 270,000 views.

On April 15th, Tumblr user 1-800-health-inspector^[4] posted a GIF of King of the Hill character Bobby in front of a large pile of cigarette butts. In less than a week the post gained over 300 notes.

Spread

The hashtag #itsametaphor^[3] was tweeted out over 3,800 in the week following the release of the clip.

On April 17th, The Fault in Our Stars author John Green posted an anymous question about the meme and his reply to his Tumblr blog^[5]:

“How do you feel about “It’s a metaphor” jokes blowing up on tumblr?

I think they are hilarious. I’m particularly fond of this one."

The post he referred to (shown below) was posted by Tumblr user mamalovebone^[6] on April 15th. In less than one week it gained over 53,000 notes.

Notable Examples

Search Interest

External References