Deep Thoughts With The Deep

Origin

The format grew out of promotional material for the third season of Amazon’s superhero series The Boys (2022), centered on the character The Deep, played by Chace Crawford. The Deep is written as vain and not especially bright, so the joke frames him delivering shallow statements as if they were profound. The name is a play on his own moniker and also echoes the old Saturday Night Live ‘Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey’ segments. It is one of several reaction and caption memes The Boys has produced across its seasons.

Meaning & usage

By mid-2022 it circulated as a three-panel exploitable, with The Deep pictured ‘reflecting’ and the tagline ‘Deep Thoughts With The Deep.’ People use it to frame an obvious, silly, or ironic observation as faux-philosophical wisdom, letting the reader supply their own mock-deep line in place of the caption. The humor comes from the gap between the reflective, thoughtful presentation and the emptiness of whatever is actually being said, so the more banal the ‘insight,’ the better it lands.

Notable examples

Typical edits swap in a banal or absurd realization as though it were a genuine revelation.

• Stating something tautological or obvious in a slow, ponderous tone.
• Pairing the reflective pose with a deliberately dumb conclusion.