About
“What if We Used 100% of the Brain?” is a memorable line from the 2014 sci-fi action film Lucy. In 2018, a two-panel image macro based on the scene gained popularity among Spanish-speaking users as a way to comment on both intelligent and unintelligent human behavior. In January 2019, the macro reached mainstream popularity on Reddit.
Origin
On July 25th, 2014, sci-fi action film Lucy premiered in theaters in the United States. In one scene, professor Samuel Norman (played by Morgan Freeman) is asked by an audience member about the hypothetical possibility to use one hundred percent of human’s brain.
Spread
In December 2018, the macro based on the scene gained popularity in a number of Spanish meme pages on Facebook and Instagram, including Momos Corp, Memes Ultra Random, Dilo con Momos, Chompos and other communities (examples below). While it isunclear where exactly the template was used first, the earliest examples of the meme can be tracked to at least December 18th, 2018.
On December 21st, 2018, Mexican news outlet El Deforma posted a compilation of the “100% of the Brain” memes. On the same day, Redditor EliPunk_ submitted an untranslated Spanish meme to /r/PewdiepieSubmissions subreddits, where it gained five upvotes.
On January 11th, 2019, Memedroid user Fancyboy uploaded two first known English versions of the meme to the website (shown below, left and center). The posts gained over 1000 and over 800 points in three weeks. On the same day, Memedroid user 0v3rlord uploaded another English meme mased on the macro, which gained 1400 points in the same period (shown below, right).
On the same day, Redditor CansOS reposted the 0v3rlord’s image to /r/PewdiepieSubmissions subreddit, where it gained 18 upvotes in three weeks. The format gained mainstream popularity on the platform after on January 12th, 2019, Redditor nixonico reposted the image tp /r/MemeEconomy subreddit. The repost received over 13,600 upvotes in three weeks.
Following the post by nixonico, more versions of the meme were posted to /r/dankmemes, /r/memes and other subreddits.
Various Examples
Search Interest
External References
Source : https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/what-if-we-used-100-of-the-brain