The Origin of the Meme "That Post Gave Me Cancer"

 

About

“That Post Gave Me Cancer” is an image macro series commonly used in response to nonsensical or insubstantial posts submitted by the original poster (OP) or other users in a given thread. This hyperbolic expression implies that the content in question was so far below one’s expectation that it infected the reader with “cancer”, a slang term that is typically used on 4chan to express one’s disgust towards a trend or a thread.

Origin

The use of the term “cancer” as a metaphor of poor quality content began on 4chan’s /b/ (random) board as early as November 2007, most notably through the popularization of the phrase “X is the cancer that is killing /b/”. Sometime in 2009, its derivative expression “that post gave me cancer” began appearing on the site through an image macro instance posted in a 60s Spider-man thread.


The screen capture, which shows the Marvel superhero lying on the sick bed at the hospital, was originally taken from an episode of the 1967 Spider-Man TV series titled “To Cage a Spider.”