That's the Evilest Thing I Can Imagine

About

“That’s The Evilest Thing I Can Imagine” is an expression used to ironically highlight juvenile pranks or trolling schemes, in a similar vein to the phrase “Some Men Just Want to Watch the World Burn.” In image macros, the phrase is usually accompanied by a screen capture of cartoon characters HIM and Mojo Jojo from the animated television series Powerpuff Girls.

Origin

In Season Six Episode Two of the Powerpuff Girls,^[1] originally aired on July 16th, 2004, the villain characters Him and Mojo Jojo compete to win the respect of the Rowdyruff Boys by demonstrating evil deeds. As HIM and Mojo Jojo fight with each other over who is the most evil, the Rowdyruff Boy Brick declares that he only cares about destroying the Powerpuff Girls, to which Mojo Jojo replies “Why, that’s the evilest thing I can imagine!”

Brick: "SHUT UP! We don’t care which one of you is more eviller, or more stupider or whateverer! There’s only one evil thing we care about! And that’s destroying the Powerpuff Girls!
Mojo Jojo: “Why, that’s the evilest thing I can imagine!”

An animated GIF of the scene (shown below) was posted by Tumblr^[4] user nodularity on September 14th, 2011, followed by color version by Tumblr^[5] user thegoddessbunny on January 8th, 2012.

Spread

On February 12th, 2013, 9gag^[3] user vladimirvamp12 uploaded an image showing onions disguised as caramel apples followed by the Mojo Jojo image macro (shown below, left). Within nine days, the post gained more than 36,000 up votes, 11,000 Facebook shares and 35 comments. On February 20th, Redditor gh7gpx submitted an image macro featuring instructions on tricking others into smelling flatulence, followed by the reaction image of Him and Mojo Jojo (shown below, right). Within 24 hours, the post received over 4,200 up votes and 40 comments.