I'm Gonna Start Dating Her Even Harder

Submission 8,094

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About

I'm Gonna Start Dating Her Even Harder or I'm Gonna Start X Even Harder refers to a series of exploitable image macros using a scene from The Office where Pam tells Michael Scott to stop dating her mother, to which he responds, "I'm gonna start dating her even harder." The episode aired in October 2009 and was shared online as a meme as early as 2012, becoming a popular subject of memes starting in 2019.

Origin

On October 22nd, 2009, season six episode seven of The Office, titled "The Lover,"^[1] aired on NBC. In the episode, it's revealed that Michael Scott is dating Pam's mother. Pam is upset by this and tells him, "Stop dating my mother." Michael responds, "You know what? I'm going to start dating her even harder."

On June 19th, 2012, a Redditor shared an image macro of the scene to /r/DunderMifflin,^[2] garnering over 390 upvotes in 11 years (shown below, left). This is the earliest known version of the scene as a meme. A shorter version of the meme was posted to Imgur^[3] on July 20th, 2013, garnering over 422,000 views in 10 years (shown below, right).

Spread

On February 16th, 2019, Redditor saiSahani posted a meme to /r/DunderMifflin^[4] attaching an image of Ariana Grande over the panel of Michael yelling, garnering over 180 upvotes in four years. The meme was reposted to the theofficeoflaughs Instagram^[5] meme page on July 31st, garnering over 9,000 likes in the same span of time (shown below).

On November 17th, the Facebook^[6] page Bored With Skill posted a meme recreating the Woman Yelling at Cat format with the scene, garnering over 14,000 shares and 1,400 reactions in four years (shown below, left). On March 25th, 2021, Instagram^[7] page epicchristianmemes reposted a meme by thebestchristianmemes applying Christianity to the format, garnering over 46,000 likes in two years (shown below, right). It was reposted to Facebook^[8] by The Best Christian Memes on April 12th, 2022, garnering over 7,200 reactions in the same rough span of time.

On August 23rd, 2022, Facebook^[9] page Apex Legends Memes & Videos posted a version of the meme about Apex Legends that garnered over 1,500 shares and 3,900 reactions in seven months (shown below).

On February 19th, 2023, the The Dankest Memes Facebook^[10] page posted a version of the meme that garnered over 550 shares and 170 reactions in a month (shown below).