It’s not hard to find terrible stock photos because so many stock photos are bad without even trying to be bad. As a web designer, search engine optimization specialist and social media marketer I come across so many the best (worst) stock images imagine-able– it’s hard to not swear off stock photos in my web designs altogether.
In the meantime though, I’ve curated some of the absolute best stock photos / worst stock photos – pulled from the meme culture.
Without further ado, weird stock photos for memes:
Without further ado – The Best Stock Photos for Memes:
1. Grandma Holding Gun (The best stock image of all time)
2. Banana with low self esteem
3. Banana in exhaust pipe (take that!)
4. Grandma licking popsicle
5. Woman snorting donuts
6. Man using cake as pillow
7. Man proud of fidget spinner
8. The sad story of man with feet hands
9. Shhhh – stock photo
10. EggPhobia – from Reddit Stock Photos
11. Lego Stock Photo with Police Brutality – WTF Stock Photo
12. Watermelon Head Stock Photo
13. Vegetarian Standoff – What is the point of this stock photo?
14. Confused man in red shirt meme
15. Business man considering noose stock photo
16. “Hide the pain Harold” with computer
17. Very creepy whipped cream sadism / shitty stock photo
18. Weighing some lettuce
19. Hiding the pain again – this time on the phone
20. Finally vindication meme
21. Pirated music meme
22. Strange corn and visor/mask stock photo
23. The king of all shitty stock photos / amazing stock photos – man with strange animal.
24. The new super soldier
25. Do not try at home
26. Do not talk to me until I’ve had my small bathtub of coffee
27. Be gone, potato
28. Doctor improvising
29. Seems excessive
30. Appreciate the hesitation though
The History of Stock Image Memes
According to Know Your Meme, stock photos have long been made fun of because of their “surreal or unrealistic portrayals of everyday life.” Case and point, the 30 images listed above. Sites like Reddit and Tumblr were some of the first to add funny captions to them.
Eventually, Tumblr would create the Awkward Stock Photos single topic blog, which helped launch these memes into the stratosphere. It seems like they have long since passed their peak in terms of popularity, but gosh darn it if these funny stock images still don’t put a smile on your face (or at the very least, a very confused, inquisitive expression). This blog was covered by websites like Buzzfeed, which further popularized the meme. The concept of the blog inspired other single topic blogs on Tumblr, such as WTF Stock Photos and Overly Specific Stock Photos.
Not long after, r/wtfstockphotos was created on Redditedsubreddit was created, both subreddits were made to share stock photos that users found funny and just plain weird. On October 31st, 2013, the r/youdontsurf was created, where users took stock photos and captioned them.
As evidenced by such auteurs of the surreal, odd, weird, and just plain bizarre movement like Eric Andre and Tim and Eric, this sort of comedy will always have a market.
If you enjoyed this oddity “Shitty Stock Photos – Best of the Worst Stock Photos for Memes” – please take a moment to check out my other meme and gif posts:
1. 15 Web Design Reaction Gif’s / Memes
2. 5 Memes Every Web Designer can Relate To?
4. Real Housewives Gifs Explain Digital Marketing
