Unsure Fry

Unsure Fry is a meme that originated from the show Futurama. It comes form this short clip in the second season of the show.

“Via YouTube”

It’s used to express skepticism and uncertainty towards a certain situation, and the formula for this meme is “Not sure if X, Or just Y”. I think that people found it relatable because it is the perfect facial expression to describe that feeling, like it’s the face I would make if I was skeptical about something. And skepticism/uncertainty is a very common feeling, which is why this appealed to so many people.

As shown by this chart, the interest for this meme really spiked in early 2011. This is when season 6 had aired on Comedy Central, 10 years after the original air date of the episode where the meme came from. The earliest source that I could find was from MemeGenerator featuring this image:

This is a very common occurrence on the internet. You’ll read some unbelievably stupid comments and doubt there can be anyone that could actually believe what they are saying. So perhaps instead of being dumb they’re doing it on purpose to make other people mad, a.k.a. trolling. After this image was posted it people adapted it and created many different variations of it.

 

Everyone has a dozen different passwords to keep track of and multiple accounts, so this happens more often than it should and it’s a very frustrating situation to be in. (Via KnowYourMeme)

I thought this one was kind of funny because he’s squinting his eyes like the headlights are blinding him so it sort of has a double meaning. (Via KnowYourMeme)

This is a play on the lyrics of a popular song “Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen. The song opens up with the lyrics “Is this the real life? Or is it just fantasy?” (Via KnowYourMeme)

An awkward situation almost everyone has gone through. (Via Memes.com)

This happens a lot in college, and it’s usually the latter. (Via QuickMeme)

It’s hard to tell if things really are getting better or you’re just getting better at dealing with it. To be honest it’s probably some combination of both. (Via WeKnowMemes)

This one seems more of just a joke than a real life situation. (Via Pinterest)

I’m always biased to believe that the food I cook tastes better than it actually is. (Via QuickMeme)

After this meme became popular, even the creators of the show caught on. In the introduction of one of the episodes, they inserted a Fry meme at the bottom of the screen saying “Not sure if new episode, or just rerun of episode I watched drunk.” (Via KnowYourMeme)

This is what is known as “going meta”, and it was probably the peak use of the meme. No one can really top the original show using a meme that became popular in real life. This meme is definitely past it’s peak, but it will still pop up occasionally. It’s mostly been replaced by other memes that can express skepticism.

I tried to create a meme from the perspective of Andrew Boyd, and this is how it turned out.