It feels like a new meme pops up every five minutes or so, and some of the most popular ones in the last years have come from various movies, both old and new – so what’s the origin of the “Am I The Only One Around Here” meme? Movies have served as inspiration for a number of stories on the big screen, television, and literature, but in the digital era this inspiration has been taken to other levels.
Fan edits, short-films, and fan-fiction are just an example of how internet users have made characters, stories, and scenes from multiple movies their own, and one of the most popular practices these days are memes. Movies like Pulp Fiction and Jeremiah Johnson have spawned some of the most famous memes – “confused John Travolta” and “Nodding Guy”, respectively, and (surprisingly?) not many people knew the origins of them. Such is the case with the “Am I The Only One Around Here” meme, which some people don’t know comes from a movie by the Coen Brothers.
The “Am I The Only One Around Here” meme, also known as “Angry Walter”, comes from the Coen Brothers’ The Big Lebowski. The story follows a slacker and avid bowler, Jeff “The Dude” Lebowski (Jeff Bridges) who is mistaken by a millionaire also named Jeff Lebowski. The millionaire Lebowski then commissions The Dude to deliver the ransom to the criminals that kidnapped his wife, but The Dude’s friend, Walter Sobchak (John Goodman), instead suggests they keep the money. Walter is a Vietnam veteran, bowling partner of The Dude, and a man with a very, very short temper. The meme comes from a scene at the bowling alley where Walter gets frustrated as one of his teammates is not following the rules. Walter takes out a gun and angrily asks “am I the only one around here who gives a sh*t about the rules?”
According to Know Your Meme, it first appeared on Reddit in March 2012, posted by user BFM11 on the thread r/AdviceAnimals with the title “Angry Walter”, although with a different The Big Lebowski screenshot that showed Walter at the bowling alley, yelling, with The Dude staring at him on the background. The caption on this very first “Angry Walter” meme was “am I the only one around here - who uses the word literally in direct context to the word”. The meme began spreading in April 2012 when Redditor phizzleout posted on the same thread the screenshot that has now become viral: Walter holding a gun, with the caption “am I the only one around here - who doesn’t upvote reposts?”
Since then, the “Am I The Only One Around Here” meme has been used in a number of contexts, all expressing a high level of frustration. The Big Lebowski has gained cult status through the years, and the emergence of a meme related to it can certainly introduce new generations to one of the Coen Brothers' most popular works.