What is the 'Vault Boy Hold Up' meme? Meaning and origin decoded

Vault Boy Hold Up meme (Image via Tenor)
Vault Boy Hold Up meme (Image via Tenor)

The Vault Boy Hold Up is one of the most trending and used memes on social media right now. The meme essentially shows Vault Boy, a character from the video game, Fallout, holding out his hands with his palms facing outwards, as if asking someone to stop or slow down.

The meme is most commonly used with phrases like "Slow down" or "Hold up" and forms a very funny meme category on Twitter and Instagram, where people usually describe situations that would lead someone to panic or take drastic measures of some sort.

According to Know Your Meme, the Vault Boy Hold Up meme originally surfaced on the internet back in September 2017 on 4chan. It was used in a thread as a response to the original post.

The Vault Boy meme was first seen on 4chan (Image via Know Your Meme)
The Vault Boy meme was first seen on 4chan (Image via Know Your Meme)

However, since then, the image blew up and people started making the funniest memes using the Vault Boy template.

Vault Boy is originally a character from the video game, Fallout. The character is the corporate mascot of Vault-Tec Corporation, an in-game defense entity that works in collaboration with the federal government in the game's storyline.


How did the "Vault Boy Hold Up" meme get popular?

Since its original appearance in 2017, it became exceedingly viral over the years and got recognition from the game developers itself.

Since the meme became popular right before the game's 20th anniversary, Steam celebrated the moment by making the game Fallout free for all players, encouraging more and more players to try out the popular game. This further popularized the jokes and meme culture that revolved around the game.

Following the game's anniversary, the meme became increasingly popular on Reddit and other similar social media platforms and ultimately ended up becoming the sensation that is the Vault Boy "Hold Up" meme.

Here are some of the funniest and most relatable Vault Boy memes that are currently on the internet.

Vault Boy Hold Up memes (Image via stolentweets/Tumblr)
Vault Boy Hold Up memes (Image via stolentweets/Tumblr)

These are some of the funniest Vault Boy memes that social media users have created ever since the template went viral in 2017.

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Edited by Yesha Srivastava