About
#UpgradeChallenge is a series of multi-pane images featuring a picture of a person, a stock photo of a finger pressing an “upgrade” key and a glamorous photograph of the same person, indicating that the subject has been “upgraded.”
Origin
On December 6th, 2015, Twitter users began posting embarrassing photographs of themselves, followed by a stock photograph of an “upgrade” keyboard key and another photograph in which they appear attractive and well-groomed (shown below).
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Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
Spread
On December 8th, 2015, Twitter user @MightyBoog_[3] posted a multi-pane image containing a photo of his new wheelchair, garnering upwards of 4,900 retweets and 4,600 likes in the next 48 hours (shown below, left). The same day, Twitter user @sadlilflocka[5] posted a variation featuring two copies of a photograph of Barack Obama, followed by the caption “ain’t no upgrade bih” (shown below, right).
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Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
On December 9th, The Daily Dot[1] published an article about the multi-pane image series. The following day, NYMag[2] published an article titled “#UpgradeChallenge, the Last Great Meme of 2015, Is Pretty Much the Meme Singularity.” On December 10th, Twitter user @Big_Mike_71[4] posted a tweet upgrading a picture of Dallas, Texas into Houston, Texas (shown below).
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Various Examples
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Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
Search Interest
Not available.
External References
[1]The Daily Dot – Theres nothing in life the upgrade meme cant improve
[2]NYMag – #UpgradeChallenge#
[3]Twitter – @MightyBoog_
[4]Twitter – @Big_Mike_71
[5]Twitter – @sadlilflocka
