My top 5 favorite sci-fi memes

Carla Ra
12 minutes ago
3 min read

I might have crossed a wormhole somewhere down the line, because it’s December 2025 already! It’s become somewhat of a tradition for me to share here personal opinions on some silly topics in the last month of the year. So, let’s do it!

A very distinguished characteristic of my identity is that I am Brazilian. And so I thought about sharing a bit of my green-and-yellow soul with you folks. Think fast, what is Brazil known for? No, not soccer. Forget about Carnival also. I’m talking about memes.

Brazil is the land of memes! You... did know this, didn’t you?

Didi you know?: The woman in the confused lady meme is Brazilian actor Renata Sorrah.

Anyway, let me present to you five of my favorite sci-fi related memes.

Meme #1 - Is this a pigeon?

When the meme becomes more popular than its source material, it can be hard to identify its origin. At first glance, this is only a confused anime character misidentifying a butterfly. But this is actually a scene from the 1991 mecha anime called Brave of the Sun Fighbird (Taiyou no Yuusha Fighbird).

The pigeon meme template with a student asking if science is magic.

The protagonist, Katori Yuutaro, is an android and a good boy. And good boys study. In this particular scene, he is enthusiastically guessing what are the things around him, and the result is hilarious.

Absolute cinema!

Meme #2 - Dr. Frankenstein’s AITA

Memes come in many shapes and forms. This one uses elements of popular culture in a clever way to make us reflect on the original intent of the seminal novel Frankenstein.

Dr. Frankenstein joins Reddit.

This meme shows us what would have been one of Victor Frankenstein’s most viral posts in the sub-Reddit called r/AmITheAsshole, or AITA for the intimates. In this community, people post personal scenarios of conflicts and ask others to judge their behavior in the narrated situation. Usually the posts end with an AITA question, and others can answer YTA (you are the asshole) or NTA (not the asshole).

What do you think, is Victor the asshole?

Meme #3 - Picard’s dad jokes

The Star Trek Franchise has given us some of the best sci-fi related memes to use when we have no words to convey a feeling. After all, the best way to explain how dumb someone sounded isn’t with grammar, but with the image of Captain Jean-Luc Picard’s expressive facepalm meme. Or, if you are in utter and complete disbelief, animated Captain James Kirk has you covered.

However, my favorite of the bunch are Picard’s dad joke template. It’s reminiscent of the one with the dinosaur standup comedy show, but more unabashed. It just works!

Meme #4 - To mimic a fraction of our power

Many people might not know the source of the “Look what they need to mimic a fraction of our power” meme, but the context is easily identifiable as a superhero being condescending. So the sci-fi element is what makes this meme work.

Of course, it comes from the popular animated series Invincibles, the superhero show created by Robert Kirkman and first released in 2021.

The Invincibles meme: look what the need to mimic a fraction of our power.

The meme appeals to the patronizing part of human nature. Especially when we have the qualifications needed to rub it in other’s noses.

Meme #5 - You were meant to destroy them

Star Trek wasn’t the only beloved space opera franchise that gifted us meme opportunities. Yes, I’m talking about Star Wars.

Like it or not, the Star Wars prequel trilogy has brought a lot of people to the fandom and cemented the franchise as a giant in popular culture. So it is not a surprise that it spawned several memes that became gold!

Anakin and Padme’s dialogue panel was a great contender, but I must say that my favorite is Obi Wan’s frustrated speech about Anakin turning to the dark side of the force.