"Jesse, we need to trope Jesse"
Despite being a dark and serious program, Breaking Bad and its spin-offs Better Call Saul and El Camino have inspired their fair share of comedic goodness. There will be spoilers below.
Please add entries in the following format:
- The meme. [[labelnote:Explanation]]The explanation behind the meme, if necessary.[[/labelnote]] ExplanationLike this.
- Further mutations and successor memes, if any.
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Shared Memes
- "This is the moment where [character name] became [character pseudonym]." Explanation A popular Youtube comment during the run of the series for any clip where characters crossed the moral event horizon, arising from amateur attempts to suss out Walt's Character Development ("This is the exact moment Walt became Heisenberg"). Since characters are constantly doing this, it became a common comment on many Breaking Bad clips, leading to parodies being posted on more irrelevant clips such as "The moment Saul made a Nescafe" and "The moment Jesse didn't become The Guy".
- MikepostingExplanation A type of meme which involves editing in images of Mike to replace random panels from a pre-existing meme, usually anime related.
- Kid named Finger:Explanation Originally from an edit of a "Kid Named [X]" joke. A particular offshoot of Mikeposting that suddenly became popular on its own, mainly due to being a Non Sequitur as a standalone image without the preceding caption. The phrase and "Finger" have both since become recurring joke nicknames for Mike.
- "Now here's what you're gonna do/here's what's gonna happen."ExplanationSince Mike has a habit of giving other characters extremely precise, detailed instructions on how to get themselves out of a jam or just giving them specific marching orders (usually from Gus), using footage of Mike giving instructions is often snowcloned into Mike giving them about something extremely silly, like using a VPN to watch content not available in your country or looking at furry porn without Google sharing the data.
- "We are not the same."ExplanationAn image of Gus with subtitles explaining how the original poster and someone else in particular are Not So Similar has proven to be quite exploitable, to say the very least.
- "Hi, I'm Saul Goodman. Did you know that you have rights? The Constitution says you do."ExplanationAn excerpt from Saul Goodman's very first ad seen in Breaking Bad, which has him say the quote and his own backing. Framing it to sound like having rights is an obscure fact, it's become popular to sync the soundbyte with clips of other characters delivering the line.
- "BRAVO VINCE"ExplanationAn offshoot of "Bravo Nolan" used to mock the fandom's Creator Worship of Vince Gilligan, which is applied to ironically praise him for just about everything that happens in both Breaking Bad or Better Call Saul, even if it's completely nonsensical or things that he would have no control over. Sometimes this even extends for praising him for things that happen in other works.
- "Who's Peter Gould?"ExplanationThis ironic praise has also led to Peter Gould, the head writer of Breaking Bad and co-creator of Better Call Saul, becoming a Butt-Monkey among the fandom. Everything he does, even if they're unrelated to the show, gets jokingly attributed to Vince Gilligan instead.
- "What did Vince mean by this?"ExplanationA variant of the "what did he mean by this?", usually used ironically trying to find some supposed subtext for random out-of-context screenshots, show clips or interviews. Sometimes "Vince" is replaced with a random character or actor from either show.
- "Unbravo Vince"ExplanationThe inverse of the "Bravo Vince" meme, used to jokingly chastise Gilligan and the creators for things like not debunking Insane Troll Logic theories, not explaining something that was very clearly shown on screen, or not clarifiying the exact fates of extremely minor characters.
- 3D Saul: ExplanationAfter a video of a, well, 3D rendition of Saul set to Better Call Saul theme tune emerged on the internet, people have been captioning it with absurd situations. For example...
- The cast singing "Feliz Navidad"ExplanationIn 2022, many fans started editing images of the characters faces singing "Feliz Navidad", which began making its way around the internet due to its sheer absurdity.
- Kevin CostnerExplanationIn Breaking Bad Saul tells Walt that he once convinced a woman he was Kevin Costner, "and it worked because I believed it". Better Call Saul reveals that it was in order to sleep with her, and he also suggests using Costner's identity to pull a scam with Kim. There is a degree of physical resemblance between Bob Odenkirk and Kevin Costner, and fans often pretend to confuse the two when commenting on photographs of them.
- Yellow Mexico.ExplanationScenes in Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul that take place in Mexico are washed out with a noticeable yellow filter, leading to the joke that everything in Mexico is yellow, any presence of yellow means Mexico is involved, or that yellow-tinted glasses are "portable Mexico".
- The Breaking Bad Cinematic UniverseExplanationFollowing the success of Better Call Saul and the welcome reception of El Camino, fans have been jokingly suggesting more shows and movies based on the franchise similar in concept to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Examples include "Better Fuck Chuck", "Huell's Rules", as well as "Hermanos" and a "Breaking Bad 2".
- Saul's BillboardExplanationThe advertising style of Saul Goodman follows a trend that many lawyers before him have been doing: purchasing all kinds of spaces and plastering their faces onto it, next to their slogans and numbers. After the popularity of Breaking Bad and the arrival of a spin-off featuring him, many lawyers have come to mimic the garish style and rhyming scheme for recognition. While Saul didn't invent the idea of advertising himself on billboards and bus benches, he certainly popularized it, leading to many cases where it becomes hard to tell whether people are intentionally referencing the Criminal Lawyer or not.
- Bro think he Saul😭😭☠️☠️☠️☠️Explanation A billboard for a Los Angeles-based law firm, CallJacob.com, that looks oddly similar to Saul Goodman's billboards. Needless to say, the comparisons were inevitable.
- Bro think he [X]😭😭☠️☠️☠️☠️ExplanationA snowclone of the above phrases, made in response to characters resembling the appearances or arcs of other characters.
- "Look at me, Hector."/Buff Gusexplanation A video of Brazilian muscle man Fabio Franca Araujo (who can at a glance be easily mistaken for Giancarlo Esposito) ripping his shirt open and flexing his pecs. This video is often used in conjunction with the scene where Gus tries to make Hector Salamanca look at him or other interactions between them, to make it seem like Hector is looking away because he'd otherwise be intimidated or aroused.
- "You unzip, you go to the urinal and you touch yourself!"ExplanationA clip from "Pet Peeves with Giancarlo Esposito and Gus Fring" taken completely out of context, which hilariously makes the clip sounds like Gus is instructing someone to go masturbate.
- Saul Goodman vs. Sol Badguy ExplanationThe two characters sport similarly patterned names, to the point where if you only know these names, one could assume Sol Badguy is an Evil Counterpart to Saul Goodman. For added irony, Sol Badguy is a heroic protagonist of his franchise while Saul Goodman is an Anti-Villain Protagonist, making both of them the opposite case of having what's called an "aptronym". This leads to jokes about the two characters from wildly-different series being arch-nemeses.
- Did you know that [X] was improvised?Explanation (franchise-wide spoilers)Due to the well-documented amount of Writing by the Seat of Your Pants, Serendipity Writes the Plot, and Throw It In! on both shows, fans started claiming absolutely everything on the show actually happened in real life or was improvised, such as Jeremiah Bitsui supposedly jumping in an acid vat in "Box Cutter", Jesse Plemons murdering a child who happened to be nearby while filming "Dead Freight", or Michael Mando actually shooting himself in the head during "Rock and Hard Place". It's almost always followed by a declaration of how dedicated the cast and crew were to making a good show, often tying in to the above-mentioned "Bravo Vince!" Creator Worship mocking.
- Howard and Lalo's cameos in Breaking BadExplanation (Better Call Saul spoilers) In the Better Call Saul episode "Point and Shoot", Lalo Salamanca and Howard Hamlin's bodies are buried in the ground of the superlab's construction site by Mike. This means that all this time, Walt and Jesse have been unknowingly cooking crystal meth over the corpses of these two major characters for two entire seasons of Breaking Bad. As such, fans gleefully began to point out the Fridge Horror in various scenes where the superlab appears in the original show, particularly when Jesse is goofing around when waiting for Walter. They also jokingly praise Patrick Fabian and Tony Dalton for their performances in those scenes. The entirety of "Fly" also tends to be spoofed, with many fans pretending that the titular housefly is either Howard or Lalo reincarnated, as them haunting Walt and Jesse during the episode's events.
- "Is he stupid?" Explanation A meme where people jokingly complain about a plot detail by questioning a character's action or decision ending up with bad consequences in the form of "Why did(n't) [Character] do [action]? Is he/she stupid?" The phrase is often used for trivial actions or things the characters have no control over, making the poster appear either oblivious or ridiculously petty (in a similar vein to the "Unbravo Vince" meme). It's notable that while this format technically started with a May 2022 meme on r/okbuddychicanery (A Breaking Bad meme subreddit), this format was popularized by r/BatmanArkham before spreading to other subreddits in early 2023, where it then made a comeback on r/okbuddychicanery.
Memes from Breaking Bad
- As a general note, Walt's lines of badassery get repeated often by fans:
- "I am not in danger, Skyler. I am the danger! A guy opens his door and gets shot and you think that of me? No. I am the one who knocks!"ExplanationWalt's rebuking Skyler's plea for him to get to the police, and simultaneously insisting that he has everything under control and that he will not be the one gunned down while opening the front door, but the one who knocks on it. One of the most iconic lines on the show, it's a ripe subject for parodic Snowclones.
- "You're goddamn right." ExplanationWalt forces Declan to say his moniker while cutting up a deal with him. Declan says it and Walter replies with the aforementioned quote. Often used as a reaction to something someone agrees with.
- "Jesse, we need to cook."explanationA catch-all quote poking fun at how often Walt is practically begging Jesse to cook with him or otherwise ordering Jesse around. This one gets a lot Harsher in Hindsight when the laters seasons start exploring how Walt is completely emotionally manipulating Jesse and how Jesse starts to finally fight back in Season 5a.
- "Someone cooked here."explanationSaid by Walt in "Crawl Space" when he arrives at the Superlab only to find the equipment still warm, despite not having been there in days. A popular reaction image in the vein of the "let him cook" meme that became popular in 2022.
- "You are not the guy. You're not capable of being the guy. I had a guy, but now I don't. You are not the guy." ExplanationMike's rant at Jesse in Shotgun after Jesse annoys him during their pickup runs. Mike's rhythmic delivery of the lines makes it a popular subject for silly dance remixes.
- Breaking Bad Comics: a series of fan created comics using Flanderisations of the characters. Breaking Bad meets Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff. Original here◊.
- Jesse: [Insert sentence], Bitch. ExplanationJesse has a tendency to say "yo" and "bitch" frequently, especially in the earlier seasons. As such, it's a popular go-to for quick and dirty Jesse impressions.
- An image of him captioned "Yeah, science bitch!"◊note Actually a case of Beam Me Up, Scotty!, since the actual quote is: "Yeah, Mr. White! Yeah, science!" is a popular reaction meme to scientific discoveries.
- Walter Jr.'s love of breakfast, which has been immortalized in a song and a rap on Robot Chicken.
- "No... no, no, no no no, no, not now. Not now, not now!"Explanation"Mandala" sees Walt get a text message from Skyler that the baby is coming soon. At first, he's shocked and happy, and then the realization dawns on him that he either misses out on the birth of his daughter or misses out on the drug deal that'll net him a fortune, at which point he starts saying this line. The phone has been photoshopped to depict Walt despairing over all kinds of other things, like losing a video game or falling for a Bait-and-Switch meme.
- Hank stumbling out of his car in S5E09 has been frequently used as a reaction gif to express astonishment or extreme fear.
- "They're not rocks, they're minerals." Explanation (spoilers)While bedridden from several gunshot wounds, Hank gained a hobby collecting minerals. Marie refers to them as rocks, which annoys Hank every time. Expect fans to quickly jump in with this humorous "correction" any time rocks are mentioned in an otherwise-unrelated context.
- Jesus Christ, Marie.ExplanationHank's aforementioned annoyed response to Marie's ignorance of the difference between rocks and minerals, also a popular quote in response to the above.
- Bmineral ExplanationDue to the insistence on correcting any instance of "rock" as minerals, many fans sarcastically correct anyone saying "Brock" as "Bmineral".
- "Tight, tight, tight! Yeah!" ExplanationTuco's reaction to Walt's blue meth has become instantly burned into people's mind whenever the word "tight" is mentioned or when someone snorts a substance. It's become Tuco's iconic catchphrase and one can expect to see it quoted any time he is brought up.
- "IS CHARACTER/OBJECT X GAY?" Explanation The copious degree of speculation concerning the exact nature of Gus's relationship with his deceased business partner Max prompted an influx of comedic posts on IMDB inquiring about the sexuality of numerous characters in the series, as well as several important intimate objects as well.
- Many of the transcribed stage directions sound extremely funny out of context and are thus extremely popular subjects for reaction images or for photoshopping the text into similar shots from other series. Some specific examples include:
- [MUFFLED RAP MUSIC PLAYING IN THE DISTANCE]
- [REVVING INTENSIFIES]
- [WALT JR. VOMITING]
- [SADLY GO-KARTS]
- During the airing of the first part of season 5, IMDB took to calling Hank, "Honk". For no apparent reason. This has stuck around.
- "Josh Pankman isn't a murderer. He was driven to it by his best friend Wotter Wight. This man shaved his head and now people think he is bald. A beard confirms his masculinity." ExplanationA bizarre comment on a Breaking Bad fan video on YouTube by a user named Gitfacehal.
- Walt's off-hand threat to Saul, where he tells him "I'll send you to Belize", seemed to become one overnight.
- Belize◊ being used as a Deadly Euphemism is one straight after the episode. Bonus points for finding YouTube videos on Belize with a Breaking Bad reference in the comments.
- And on reddit, a redditor misheard the quote and asked "who is billy" on Breaking Bad's section, believing that Saul wanted to send Hank to Billy's.
- Hank and Marie, staring in horror/disgust/disbelief at their TV screen, replacing Walt's fake confession pinning Hank as Heisenberg with things like the VMAs or Hal's rollerdancing skills. Also literally sprang up overnight.
- "Better Call Saul!" ExplanationSaul Goodman's catchphrase in his commercials and all over his advertising spots. It got so big, in fact, it is now the name of the spinoff.
- Walt throwing a pizza on the roof. Or, "Roof Pizza"! Many fans have attempted to recreate the scene since its airing.
- This meme has gotten so well known that Vince Gilligan asked fans to stop throwing pizzas on the roof of the Walter White house because it's not cool for the actual resident who lives there.
- Huell lying on Walt's money is often used as a representation of someone or something after they do something that would make them a lot of money, like a greedy company fleecing their customers.
- Huell is still sitting around waiting.Explanation (spoilers)Hank tricks Huell into hiding in a safehouse under false pretense; as Hank dies shortly afterwards, fans have made many jokes of the fact that Huell is presumably still afraid for his life and waiting for his return, at least until El Camino confirmed that he eventually left.
- Stop trying to make Low Winter Sun happen. It's not going to happen. ExplanationTypical BB fan's response to AMC's constant promotion of Low Winter Sun.
- Meth Damon ExplanationTodd Alquist bears quite the resemblance to Matt Damon, and the uninitated could easily think that Todd's name is actually Meth Damon, because the two are almost interchangable.
- "No more half measures." ExplanationMike's cautionary tale to Walt about dealing with Jesse has become popular. It's also sometimes combined with the "Get your dick out, Waltuh" joke and the accompanying image of Mike frisking Walt (see below) to make it sound like an Unusual Euphemism.
- "Mexico, all's I'm sayin'." "Heh. Guy hit 10 guys in jail a two minute window. All's I'm sayin'." ExplanationHuell and Kuby while lying on all of Walt's cash. The image of the two itself is also popular as a way to represent someone's richness.
- "Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!" ExplanationSkyler's Big "SHUT UP!" to Marie. A popular response to things that elicit great disgust.
- Jesse has a Need for Speed. Explanation (spoilers)“Felina†has Jesse driving off at high speed in a car at the end, to a new life. One of Aaron Paul’s roles after the show is a part in the Need for Speed movie, and fans have joked that the entire show is a prequel to the film.
- In a similar vein, that the series is a sequel to Malcolm in the Middle, after a possible Noodle Incident. Plenty of jokes about Malcolm being a sequel to Breaking Bad have also been made.
- There's also juxtapositions of Walt's dramatic scenes in BB with silly things from Malcolm.
- Walter looks like a live-action version of Ned Flanders early in the series. Fans have responded to this with numerous fanart of crossovers with The Simpsons.
- Turning Mr. Chips into Scarface. ExplanationVince Gilligan's original pitch for the series has become so famous that it is often used to sum it up to newcomers.
- The Evil "[insert noun here]". Explanation During the Brazilian airing of the show, the name was translated as "A Quimica do Mal" (The Evil Chemistry). Since the original Breaking Bad had many fans in the country before it aired there on TV, they were displeased with this name. As a result, every time something Breaking Bad-related appears, they will make a joke about this title.
- Many people have parodied Walt's appearance in the "Change the Equation" season 1 poster◊ (the one where he has no pants and white underwear), sometimes crossing it over with other shows like Adventure Time◊, Bob's Burgers◊, The Smurfs◊, and even Pinky and the Brain.
- "He can't keep getting away with it!" ExplanationScreamed by Jesse after he realizes he's been played by Walter far too many times. When the clip is used, it's in referral to the poster being tricked or in reaction to the actions of a person or artist known well as a Trolling Creator. In the show's latter days, it was often directed at Vince Gilligan himself.
- "Jesse what the fuck are you talking about?"ExplanationA set of screenshots◊ from the scene of Jesse and Walt eating after the start of Box Cutter. They tend to be edited to depict scenes of Jesse referencing modern internet slang and culture, much to the confusion of Walt, or Walt being a Technologically Blind Elder who doesn't understand things like Twitch and Twitter. Alternatively, Jesse talks about an obscure historical or scientific fact that sounds completely absurd or fictitious out of context, much to the confusion and frustration of Walt. Their flashback scene in El Camino is also used this way.
- "Breaking Good Episode 1"ExplanationA parody and essentially mini-abridged retelling of Breaking Bad and its characters' relationships, made from quickly typed-out posts and equally hastily-made narration. It became popular enough to warrant some follow-ups.
- JesserExplanationMany characters' names are corrupted and rewritten as part of the style, with "Jesser" being the most infamous case and "Mr Wahit" being another. Fans have taken to calling Jesse this following the spread of the video.
- methé/methér/"cocainer"ExplanationSimilar to the above naming corruption, there's also misnaming of meth as these terms, pronounced "meth E" and "meth her" respectively, despite what the accented letters would otherwise imply. Sometimes altogether replaced with "cocainer" as the product that Walter and Jesse cook.
- Walt's Breakdown. Explanation (spoilers)In "Ozymandias", Walter collapses in despair after seeing Hank get shot in the head. The utter shock on Walter's face has led to the sequence being used for various gifs, and the first few frames of the shot have also been used as reaction images. Remarkably, this clip has been taken out of context with surgical precision, so people who haven't seen the episode can enjoy the meme as well without fear of getting spoilered.
- "Walt, I dunno man. Been pretty sus lately."/Hank's Sussy Baka ExplanationAs part of a charity drive, one of many Cameo videos included commissioning Dean Norris to portray Hank interrogating Walt as if they were playing a game of Among Us, ending with him declaring Walt to be a "Sussy Baka". The already memetic tendencies of Among Us subjected the video to spread and numerous edits.
- Hank's reactionexplanation Two juxtaposed images of Dean Norris smiling and frowing, commonly used to humorously remark on the extreme dichotomy between two situations.
- Yo Mister White! Someone's at the doorExplanationA five-panel format depicting Jesse telling Walter to answer the door, only to discover the person knocking is a character from a completely different franchise, inviting Heisenberg to join their adventure. This results in a Massive Multiplayer Crossover with Breaking Bad as the most unlikely series to be paired with anything and everything, with the payoff being a picture of Walt poorly photoshopped into a photo of the cast in the last panel.
- Walt: [confesses to being Heisenberg] Hank: Heh heh! Good one.ExplanationWalt and Hank's game of "Cat and Mouse" over the course of the series is one of the show's most famed aspects, and usually, Walt manages to slip away thanks to Hank always underestimating him. At times, it reaches absurd and comedic points, like when Hank notices the suspicious weight of Walt's duffel bag. Walt responds with a Sarcastic Confession of it being his drug money and successfully gets Hank off his back. As a way of mocking how blind Hank tends to be, fans have joked that, even if Walt ever confessed to being Heisenberg to his face, Hank still wouldn't have believed him.
- Hank finds out earlyExplanationSome jokes go in the opposite direction, with Hank finding out the truth earlier. They range from him just opening the duffel bag to somehow knowing what Walt's going to do the second he sees the drug bust on TV to even more absurd moments. Videos on this usually end a soundbyte of Dean Norris saying "Walt..." from the "pretty sus lately" clip above.
- Walter White Cooking/"[X] carefully crafting the best/worst [Y] ever"ExplanationA GIF-captioning meme taking the cooking scene◊ from Sunset, specifically the part where Walt carefully administers droplets for the batch, and using it to depict the creation of certain things the poster likes or dislikes, done to level criticism or praise at the effort needed to make what they are reacting to. Also used to help describe more outlandish situations in cases of absurdist or Surreal Humor.
- Anime Memes Replaced With Breaking Bad:ExplanationAn extension of the Mikeposting trend, where people take anime fandom memes and replace the punchline with completely unrelated screenshots from Breaking Bad.
- "[X] but replaced with Breaking Bad:ExplanationAn extension of Mikeposting, in which images of the cast of Breaking Bad or scenes from the show are used to replace some or all panels of a regular meme.
- "~Ahh~! AAHHH! OOOH, HOLY MOTHER OF GOD!"explanation An outtake of Bryan Cranston in character as Walt during the the scene where he reinserts his I.V. back into his arm, making some questionable moaning sounds and exclamations. Cue the fleet of incoming jokes about Walt and Skyler's sex life or about Walt having sex with Mike (see above) using this sound bite.
- "SEÑOR WHITE"ExplanationA meme from the Spanish community where Jesse asks Heisenberg about obtaining "Obo", which results in a dirty wordplay: "¿Qué es obo?" (which in Spanish sounds something like "What do I blow?").
- "Just call, call anonymously." "You call anonymously!" "I can't! I can't! They know me! They know my voice!"ExplanationA conversation between Walter and Saul about calling the DEA office in "Crawl Space" can be used in some funny situations, such as an attempt to call a gay phone sex line or to get a membership.
- "This is it. This is how it ends."ExplanationA quote from Mike's "Half measures" speech which became prevalent when the series finale for Better Call Saul was about to be released.
- "Jimmy moment!" Explanation After all the context of Better Call Saul, which had the writers saying people will never look at Breaking Bad the same way again, the response to when there’s a peek of kindness, depression or fear beneath the Saul mask. Even an article on it.
- Bitch wife. ExplanationIronic nickname for Skyler referencing her Ron the Death Eater status. The meme or joke is often set up as overblowing relatively harmless things Skyler did while downplaying horrible crimes Walter have done, presented like a boomer joke about a nagging wife.
- Walt screaming from inside a car.Explanation (Season 5 spoilers)In "To'hajiilee", Walt sees Jack's gang coming to slaughter everyone despite his calling off of Jesse's assassination. Kept in the car, he starts screaming Hank's name, a still of which became repurposed as a meme to describe a number of different silly situations, like children being left in a hot car during the summer or Walt attempting to yell at Hank that he got Walt's McDonald's order wrong. Alternatively, the meme is also used to indicate Walt warning other fictional characters or historical figures not to do the things that would lead to their doom.
- HeisenbonesExplanationIn mid-2022, Breaking Bad fans on Reddit started making up a comic relief skeleton character who was a sidekick to Walter and Jesse, posting screenshots with a skeleton edited in as "proof" or sharing their favourite Heisenbones moments of the show.
- Ese compa ya esta muerto / Nomás no le han avisadoEnglish That homie's already dead / Just that no one told him yet Explanation For Latin American fans in particular, this little verse from "Negro y Azul" is almost as iconic as the "Jesse we need to cook" memes mentioned above. Basically, take someone that's either Too Dumb to Live or is totally screwed, and play the song for dramatic, humorous, or darkly comedic effect.
- Jesse Pinkman's shirtExplanationFans like to joke about the random "edgy" t-shirts Jesse tends to wear (which have images like skulls, dragons, lightning, or other gaudy pop art), and how they juxtapose his incredibly traumatic and horrifying experiences.
- "My name is Skyler White, yo. My husband is Walter White, yo?"ExplanationIn "The Cat's In The Bag", Skyler confronts Jesse thinking that Walt is associating with him to buy weed. Her incredibly awkward attempts to follow Jesse's speaking mannerisms and Jesse's prolonged Oh, Crap! expression thinking that his methmaking operation got busted has led to the scene getting a ton of edits, usually portaying Skyler as a master rap battler and adding loud, bassy explosions after each one of her lines.
- Sauron is about to cook meth. Explanation The declaration of the ROP show runners that Sauron will be a character akin to Walter White in Season 2 spawned many memes and commentaries across both Tolkien and Breaking Bad fanbases.
- Holy shit I think I accidentally joined a neo-nazi groupexplanation An Anti-Humor subversion image of the "every squad has the..." meme where all the images are replaced with 3D Saul Goodman(see above) and captioned "racist". At the bottom of the image is a promotional image of Walter White saying this phrase.
- Waltuh. explanationFans frequently have Mike addressing Walt as "Waltuh" due to his gravelly voice, especially when making impressions of him.
- "Waltuh. Put your dick away, Waltuh. I'm not having sex with you right now, Waltuh."ExplanationLines taken from a Twitter video of someone making a Mike Ehrmantraut impression deliberately compressed to low quality. It has since been reposted on YouTube and TikTok or done with different variants, such as "Get your dick out, Waltuh" superimposed over a screenshot of the scene where Mike frisks Walt in season 5, with the angle making it look like Mike is about to have sex with him.
- "It was perfect! But no! YOU just had to BLOW IT UP!"ExplanationMike's "The Reason You Suck" Speech to Walt in "Say My Name" is often used as a copypasta to express diappointment at someone else's Epic Fail.
- Breaking Bad if [X] happenedexplanation Pretending that a clip from the opening of "Barely Legal Pawn" (a sketch that Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul did with Julia Louis-Dreyfus) is actually Walt and Jesse in a radically altered timeline, typically caused by something incredibly minor (like "if Walt went go-karting with Jesse" or "if Hank pissed instead of shitting").
- "it is pride month, walter. you know what that means"note From this fanmade comic◊ in which Gus reminds Walt that it's Pride Month using the above line, to which Walt gets confused about the implication, asking what it means. Gus doesn't explain, only smirks smugly. The comic's bizarre nature has led to multiple redraws of other series, such as this one based on Splatoon or this one of the Kirby anime.
- Breaking Bad Trans FlagExplanationJokingly stating that the transgender pride flag is based on the show, with the blue symbolizing the blue meth, the pink for Jesse Pinkman, and the white for Walter White.
- She was a [X] girl, he was a [Y] boyExplanationAn image of Jane and Jesse as the "girl" and "boy", being a parody of Opposites Attract, with [Y] being a counterpart/alternative to [X], often with things perceived to be opposites.
Memes from Better Call Saul
- Having enough stickers.ExplanationThroughout the first few episodes, Jimmy has trouble getting past Mike's parking lot booth because he doesn't have the right number of parking validation stickers. Reflecting their respective personalities, Jimmy ends up fumbling said rules over and over again while Mike stands firm in making sure he follows the rules properly. Fans have taken to conflating all sorts of conflict with Mike as him seeking the right amount of stickers by any means necessary.
- An actual scene in Better Call Saul/"SOMEBODY STOP THOSE BARKING DOGS!"Explanation A clip of an outtake of Jonathan Banks goofing off in character as Mike loudly complaining about some barking dogs and covering his ears, which fans love to claim is an actual scene from the show because of how out-of-character it is for Mike, in the vein of the "Walter White moaning" clip.
- Tony the Toilet Buddy.ExplanationOne of Jimmy's clients in "Alpine Shepherd Boy" is an inventor of a talking toilet that encourages those using it, meant to help with potty training but unfortunately being laden with adult innuendo. It has since become a subject of humor among fans.
- Fuck Chuck Explanation (spoilers)Following The Reveal in "Pimento" that Chuck has been actively against Jimmy's attempts to become a lawyer, the fandom created this phrase in response to anytime Chuck's attempts to sabotage his brother's efforts are observed or discussed.
- Howard's job offer.Explanation (spoilers)Howard offers Jimmy a job at several points throughout season 5, which lead to a meme where several tense interactions or phone calls are replaced by Howard offering him a job again. As of season 6, it's now extended to the point of Howard transcending death to still ask Jimmy if he's interested in the offer.
- McGill BowlExplanationA common name for the clashes between Jimmy and Chuck, which became prominent in season 3.
- Ribs on a burgerExplanationNot from the show proper, but during the airing of season 3, a certain Carls Jr. commercial typically appeared in the commercial breaks, causing it to be the subject of mockery on Reddit.
- "[X] Huells until Season [y] comes out"Explanation (spoilers)A "Huell" is a unit of time equal to 1 hour and 43 minutes, the amount of time that passed in "Chicanery" between when Huell planted the battery on Chuck, and Jimmy pointing it out to discredit Chuck.
- "Your honor..." followed by Saul giving his "defense" to his client.ExplanationA larger and more general meme, involving a lawyer giving their defense of a client in silly off-kilter arguments, such as "finders keepers." Screenshots from the show depicting Saul defending his clients in court happen to be the most popular and defining variants.
- Saul's mugshotExplanationThe scene of Jimmy having his mugshot taken for breaking into Chuck's house is frequently used as an image in conjunction with memes about people getting incriminated, such as the "the groupchat got leaked" meme.
- "Hello, and welcome to the Los Pollos Hermanos family. My name is Gustavo, but you can call me Gus." Explanation A Twitter account by the handle of @mynamesgustavo goes around posting this short clip from the employee training video for Los Pollos Hermanos created to promote season 3 of the show.
- My name is Gustavo, but you can call me sus. ExplanationA fan online edited this clip to make it sound like Gustavo is saying "sus" instead of his own name in the employee training video. With the allusions to Among Us already prevalent, the fact that it helps highlight Gustavo's shady demeanor certainly helps.
- Werner Zieeeeeegler.ExplanationLalo becomes obsessed with figuring out what Werner was doing working for Gus, prompting him to say his name many, many times. His way of saying "Ziegler" has become especially memetic.
- Detective Juan Bolsa.ExplanationA meme template spread on r/okbudddychicanery where Bolsa is on the phone outraged about something that's happened, completely oblivious the person he's talking to is the one who did it in the first place. It pokes fun at how Bolsa is constantly locked out of the conspiracies and infighting between his fellow Cartel members (particularly whenever Gus is involved) until it's much too late by Breaking Bad.
- Cliff Main's son.ExplanationIn season 6, Cliff Main mentions he has a son with a drug problem. This has led not just to genuine speculation that his son is some plausible pre-established character from Breaking Bad, but a ton of memes accusing literally everyone from Huell to Marie, to characters from other fandoms, of being the son.
- Chuck's courtroom breakdown./CHICANERYExplanationChuck's unhinged rant during the bar hearing is now a copypasta used for one person/character to accuse another of over the top wrongdoing.
- "...How?!"Explanation (spoilers)Replacing Lalo with a variety of other nonsensical characters via Photoshop to be standing behind Howard during his death scene in "Plan and Execution", with Jimmy still having the same horrified reaction to seeing them as he originally did to Lalo.
- "The boss can suck me!"ExplanationHector screams this during his rant at Bolsa and Gus right before he has a stroke. His accent generally has it repeated online more as something along the lines of, "Da bozss khan sock meee!!"
- "I need to see your balls."ExplanationA misheard line from a scene where Hector walks into Los Pollos Hermanos and tells Lyle "I need to see your boss." Due to Hector's aforementioned thick Mexican accent, "boss" can be misheard as "balls," which combined with Hector being a known womanizer lead to jokes about Hector being a Depraved Bisexual or Memetic Molester. It's also frequently sentence mixed with Hector's "The boss can suck me!" line to make him say things like "Suck my balls" or "I need to suck your balls".
- "Not the manager, the balls."Explanation Hector's next line in the above scene where he says "boss" with just as thick an accent, making it once again sound like "balls". This line is often used for doubling down on the above meme and making it seem like Hector is deadset on seeing Lyle's balls while Lyle desperately tries to Change the Uncomfortable Subject.
- "It's Slippin' Time"Explanation A made up catchphrase for the Slippin' Jimmy show similar to Morbius.
- Kim Wexler's FeetExplanationThe show contains quite a few shots of Kim's feet, which fans quickly caught onto, with one fan even making a post of specific timestaps in episodes where one can see them. The writers' odd fascination for showing her feet has drawn comparisons to Quentin Tarantino's infamous foot fetish, and has led Kim to gain the nickname of "Kim Sexler".
- Claiming Bob Odenkirk was responsible for the feet shotsExplanationIn mid-2022, fans saw that Bob Odenkirk had been following an Instagram account dedicated to foot fetishes. Combined with the writers' penchant for showing feet in the show, many jokingly assumed it was all actually Bob's idea to include them. After Bob eventually un-followed the account, fans felt as though he was invokedhumiliated from the resulting memes and took to his defense.
- Who was the evilest villain in the Breaking Bad universe? Explanation (spoilers)Following along with the above meme, a joking series of images comparing the most heinous acts of the villains from both shows (usually Walt, Gus, and/or Todd) and finishing with Lalo, concluding that he was the most evil of them all because in Episode 6x8 after killing Howard he told Kim to put her shoes on.
- "I no longer want to call Saul." ExplanationA frequent joke about how the show made turning into funny lawyer man Saul Goodman a tragedy, and fans were dreading the day when Jimmy would become him.
- Chuck asks [X] if they passed the bar.ExplanationThere are a lot of videos of Chuck finding out various characters passed the bar exam and getting angry about it, exaggerating his fears of Jimmy becoming a lawyer by having everyone become one.
- "You passed the bar?!"/"WHAT A SICK JOKE!"ExplanationThe formula for these edits start with a character approaching Chuck, him asking if they passed the bar, the character confirming somehow, and Chuck responding with this snippet from his "Chicanery" rant.
- "These recasts are going too far."Explanation (spoilers)Jeff the cab driver was portrayed by Don Harvey during his brief appearances in Seasons 4 and 5, but due to scheduling conflicts, had been recast for Pat Healy in Season 6. The fandom response was mixed, but eventually came to joke about how the show has constantly been replacing characters with new actors, such as Gus' Body Double seen more clearly in Point and Shoot.
- "Why did they recast [X]?"Explanation (spoilers)More extreme cases have the fictional "Nippy" recast as another dog, or the times where characters simply go under a new alias, leading to fans acting as if they were supposed to be a completely different character in the scene.
- "I can't believe they recast Mike!"Explanation (spoilers)In "Waterworks", it's revealed that Mike's old position in the Albuquerque's courthouse ticket booth has been automated since his retirement (and subsequent death). Fans jokingly interpret this as Jonathan Banks himself being replaced with the computer, cracking jokes about comparing the "new actor" to Banks. Some take it even further by claiming Mike has always been an automated ticket machine.
- "Do you think that's me? Because it's not."Explanation (spoilers)The scene where Gene catches Marion watching one of his old commercials as Saul Goodman, exposing his identity. The scene has been edited with other memes from the show or Bob Odenkirk's other TV appearances
- Chuck hits his head on a tableExplanationA gif of the scene where Chuck hits his head on a table in "Nailed" during an EHS-induced fit became popular in 2021 and onwards, often as a reaction to something bad similar to Walter White collapsing in despair.
- Huell Ate Kim/Better Fuel HuellExplanationA notorious Epileptic Trees explanation for how Huell appears so much fatter in Breaking Bad than in Better Call Saul, combined with why we never saw Kim in Breaking Bad: Huell apparently swallowed Kim whole. This has led to various "leaks" of Huell doing the deed, or joking that Breaking Bad credits Rhea Seehorn as playing "Huell's Girth".
- "Greatest legal mind I ever knew."ExplanationA quote from Howard describing Chuck which has a tendency to either be spammed in GIF form as a Non Sequitur, or twisted into a overly-long story just to end with a butchered wordplay of this phrase, such as with the following examples.
- The Saul Pose/Jimmy McGill's Anime Girl StanceExplanationDuring the montage in Mijo, Jimmy delivers his defense while bending over with his arms behind his back and his head held up. Recognized as the Coy, Girlish Flirt Pose quite often seen in anime, it became subject to numerous redraws and fanart.
- "Have some more chicken, have some more pie, it doesn't matter if it's boiled or fried."ExplanationA quite memorable line said by Michael McKean, the actor of Chuck during the "We're All In This Together" "Weird Al" Yankovic Parody video. It caught on due to its sheer absurdity at how oddly-enunciated Michael says it, while being almost in-character as Chuck.
- "Just eat it eat it eat it eat it eat it eat it" ExplanationAnother line from the same video as above, said by Bob Odenkirk, Saul's actor. It blew up due to an above meme of Bob following a foot fetish account, along with the monotone way he says it.
- Howard Hamlin is the kind of guy to...ExplanationTo make fun of how milquetoast Howard is compared to the rest of the cast, people started saying hilariously awkward things Howard "would do", such as not being able to kill a civilian in Grand Theft Auto, saying "nice kitty" when falling into a lion enclosure, or to start floating in the air when he smells a delicious pie. It's adapted from similar jokes once made regarding Drake.
- Yassified Saul Goodman. explanationThe affectionate tumblr joke on how Saul - when it hits his timeline - is obviously skinnier than how he was in Breaking Bad, with a nicer combover wig and fitted "lead actor now" suits.
- "Walt during Better Call Saul"ExplanationSince BCS is a prequel to Breaking Bad, fans like to make jokes about Walter White living a relatively mundane life during that timeframe in contrast to whatever drama is going on with the BCS characters.
- "Taco Cabeza is just around the corner."ExplanationA throwaway piece of dialogue by Kim that exploded on r/okbuddychicanery, likely originating in a post asking what the most underrated line in the series was. Someone answered with a gif of this line, and it's been incorporated into memes and spammed in comments ever since.
- The Bimbofication Of Jimmy McGill. explanationEarly season six revealed that at this point in her character arc, Kim finds creating Saul Goodman a turn-on (and as always, Jimmy is very keen on making her happy) and she lovingly encourages the flamboyant cars and clothes and office along with more attention-seeking and Obfuscating Stupidity, leading many to joke she's bimbofied him.
- Fan-made Better Call Saul introsexplanation Many fans began making their own homages to the show's intro, which consists of a grainy VHS clip of a random area related to Saul Goodman. Most people tend to film random areas outside their place of residence and add the VHS effect to them, complete with music.
