He Can't Possibly Have Brain Cancer / House:

About

He Doesn't Have Brain Cancer / House: refers to a series of caption memes based on an image of the television drama series House and its titular character Dr. Gregory House (portrayed by English actor Hugh Laurie) staring. The captions, which often describe off-meta and disliked tactics in online video games, imply that the person described in the meme has reduced cognitive ability because of a brain tumor.

Origin

On December 29th, 2023, X^[1] user @viewerOW wrote a joke about people who chose to play Overwatch, implying that they do not think properly on behalf of a brain disease. The post, which parodied a dialogue in the television drama series House and used an image of Hugh Laurie as Gregory House, received over 3,500 reposts and 43,000 likes in three weeks.

Spread

In the following days, more posts based on the format were shared on X / Twitter, with the examples often ridiculing players who choose to do off-meta builds in competitive online video games such as League of Legends and Overwatch. For example, on December 30th, 2023, X^[2] user @StarlightAPM made one such post that gained over 960 reposts and 9,700 likes in three weeks (shown below).

The format regained popularity in mid-January 2024 as more posts based on it appeared on X / Twitter. For example, on January 16th, 2024, X^[3] user @styxywhixy made a joke about Junkrat players in Overwatch that received over 4,200 reposts and 51,000 likes in two days (shown below).

Various Examples

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Search Interest

External References