About
Laughing Wolves, also known as Three Wolves, is an exploitable image macro series depicting three white wolves with two of them laughing at each other and the other staring unamused into the distance. The format is typically used as an object labeling meme where each wolf is labeled as someone or something, but also as a simple reaction image. The meme shares many similarities to the Ryan Reynolds Between Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhaal format. The original image was photoshopped to make it appear as though the wolves were laughing in 2019, but the meme itself was popularized in early July 2020.
Origin
The original, unedited version of the photo was uploaded on April 15th, 2019, by DeviantArt user woxys picturing three white wolves, titled “Global Yawning” (shown below). The photo received over 9,000 views, 860 favorites and 38 comments. The photoshopped version, which changed the wolves to make them appear to be laughing, was originally posted by Twitter user Piemations on April 15th, 2019, receiving over 1,800 likes and 379 retweets.
On July 5th, 2020, Redditor feeling-a-bit-blue uploaded the first-known meme using the photo to the /r/Undertale subreddit, and the thread received more than 1,600 points (100% upvotes) (seen below).
Spread
On July 5th, 2020, Facebook page “Important Animal Images” reposted the edited version of the photo, receiving more than 5,800 reactions and 6,900 shares. The same day, Redditor behy20 reposted the photo to the /r/pics subreddit.
In the following days, it then spread to other platforms, such as Twitter, Facebook and Reddit. On July 6th, 2020, Twitter user @_thememefactory uploaded a 9 Out of 10 Dentists variant using the photo. The tweet received 75 retweets and 478 likes (shown below).
On July 5th, Redditor ChakraStrike also uploaded the meme to the /r/ShingekiNoKyojin subreddit, receiving more than 1,400 points (94% upvotes) (seen below).
On July 6th, 2020, Redditor AdityaPatel149 then uploaded the template to /r/MemeTemplatesOfficial, and the thread received 184 points (99% upvotes).
Various Examples
Template
Search Interest
Know Your Meme Store
External References
Source: https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/laughing-wolves