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The Conspiracy Keanu meme features an image of the actor Keanu Reeves displaying a look of alarm or fear, drawn from a 1989 comedy film, Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure. In the specific frame used for the meme, Keanu’s character, Ted, appears petrified, which adds to the comedic effect when paired with text. The accompanying captions usually consist of paranoid suspicions or bizarre philosophical queries that echo similar themes found in other meme formats like Paranoid Parrot, Philosoraptor, and Stoner Dog.
The meme originated from a slideshow by New York Magazine's Vulture Blog published on December 11th, 2008, which was entitled Vulture’s Complete Field Guide to the Facial Expressions of Keanu Reeves. The slideshow featured various expressions of Keanu Reeves captured from his movies, with one specific image from the film Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure where his character is fleeing from medieval knights. This image later became popular on social media, first used as a reaction image on the Fark forums on September 17th, 2010. The first image macro, featuring the classic Conspiracy Keanu format, was posted on the r/funny subreddit on June 2nd, 2011, which can be seen here.
Origin: 2011
AI Memes is a free online meme maker that lets you create viral memes with custom text, images, and AI-powered editing tools.
You can browse our growing library of popular meme templates, quickly caption images, videos, or GIFs in Caption This, or design completely custom image memes from scratch in our free-form editor with extra AI tools like Magic Prompt, Magic Face Swap, Magic Erase, and Magic Face.
The platform includes three main tools:
Text is fully customizable with font selection, weight controls, colors, and styling like outlines and italics. Each text layer has its own opacity slider, and you can drag text around the canvas or drag layers in the sidebar to control which elements appear on top. Add as many text boxes as you need with the "Add Text" button.
Upload and layer additional images onto your meme with the "Upload Image" button. Each image can be repositioned, resized, and have its opacity adjusted. Paste images directly with CMD/CTRL + V for quick edits.
Enable custom headers above your media with adjustable colors and heights—perfect for adding context or reaction text. This works in both Caption This and when editing templates from the meme library.
Yes! Use Caption This to add text, headers, and captions to videos and animated GIFs. Simply upload your video or GIF file, add your customizations, and download the finished meme. The tool preserves the animation and exports your captioned video or animated GIF ready to share.
You can also upload your own videos and animated GIFs in Caption This to add captions and text overlays. The meme template library features hundreds of popular image templates that open in the same editor with all the same customization options.
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Yes! There are tons of use cases to use AI Memes for outside of memes. The tools work great for any image, GIF, or video editing needs. Create tutorial screenshots with text annotations, add subtitles to explainer videos, design eye-catching YouTube thumbnails, caption product demos, build Instagram story templates, or create branded video content for your business. If you need to put text or images on media quickly, AI Memes has you covered.
AI Memes supports PNG, JPG, and WEBP images, MP4 videos, and animated GIFs. Your download will match your upload format—bring us an image, get an image back; bring us a video, get a video back; bring us a GIF, get a GIF back.
No account required! You can start creating memes immediately without signing up. Simply visit any tool, upload or select a template, customize it, and download. However, creating a free account gives you access to features like saved projects and your meme creation history. Upgrading to AI Memes Pro removes the AI Memes watermark from your downloads and unlocks tons of powerful AI features in the full editor.
