A FAMILIAR MEME. A NEW CONTEXT.

DiCaprio Raising a Glass (Great Gatsby Toast)

What this meme means

A frame from "The Great Gatsby" (2013) where Leonardo DiCaprio as Gatsby smiles and raises a champagne glass in a toast. It's used as a universal reaction of approval and celebration, captioned with jokey or ironic phrases.

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What's in the picture

The actor, in a black tuxedo with a bow tie and a white dress shirt front, is sitting or standing in the dim space of a party. His hair is slicked back and gleaming, and blurred lights in the background create a festive atmosphere. He holds a glass of champagne in his right hand and raises it toward the viewer.

The facial expression matters to the meme: Gatsby narrows his eyes slightly, the corners of his mouth are raised, and his gaze is pointed straight at the camera. The gesture reads as an invitation: the character seems to be inviting the viewer to join the toast and drink to something good.

Because of the direct look into the lens, the shot comes across as addressed personally to the viewer. That turns an ordinary moment from the film into a universal gesture of support, and it's precisely this effect that lets the picture be used in all kinds of situations.

History and origin

The frame is from "The Great Gatsby," based on F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel. The film's theatrical premiere was May 1, 2013, but the gesture's first appearance online is tied to the second theatrical trailer, released on December 20, 2012. At around the forty-third second of the trailer, Gatsby raises his glass straight toward the camera, and that exact moment became the starting point of the future meme.

Toast and party scenes play an important role in the film, and DiCaprio, as the mysterious millionaire, is the central figure in these episodes. That's why the gesture came to feel like an embodiment of the film's whole aesthetic: luxury, nostalgia, and showy revelry.

No single author is credited for the meme's caption, since the picture was taken from the film and reworked by users. This is a typical story for film-based memes: the original frame belongs to the studio, while its popularity is born in fan-made versions.

How it spread

A notable push came from the use of the frame on Tumblr. After the release of a Fergie song with a similar party theme, users began using the toast picture as a convenient illustration of celebration. On May 13, 2013, user boosted-minkica posted a series of GIFs with this gesture, and a post captioning the image with "of course you can" in reply to "you can't repeat the past" racked up more than a million notes.

On May 24, 2013, The Meta Picture published an image macro built around a line from a song tied to the film, and users quickly started copying that format. Mainstream outlets picked up the topic too: on June 17, 2013, BuzzFeed ranked this scene second in a roundup of three times DiCaprio raised a glass.

On July 16, 2013, the picture appeared as a template on the Meme Generator service. This made it much easier to create captions: a user only had to pick the frame and type in their own text, and the number of variants grew very quickly.

Typical usage

The meme most often expresses approval, support, or praise. A caption like "great idea" or "that's worth drinking to" turns the frame into a sign of agreement in chats. This variant is handy when someone proposes something interesting and you want to quickly show that the suggestion is accepted.

The meme is also used as a general-purpose image macro with any text at all. Sometimes the caption is built on a contrast: the character seems to agree with a statement that, in context, sounds absurd. The irony lies in the fact that the serious, confident frame doesn't match the ridiculous text.

Variants with lines about the past and the impossibility of turning back time show that the joke can also work as a light philosophical remark. The toast turns into a response to any nostalgic or cheerful statement.

Why the meme caught on

One reason for its success is Tumblr's GIF culture, where short moving clips from films were the main language of communication. The raised-glass gesture reads easily and looks good as a loop, so users quickly found a use for it.

The frame itself matters too. The actor's face is expressive, and the smile is both confident and slightly sly, which makes the emotion clear without any caption. Thanks to that, the picture works as a standalone reaction even when there's no text at all.

Finally, the meme draws on the recognizability of the character. Gatsby became one of the most memorable characters of recent years, and his line "old sport" and the party aesthetic are instantly associated with the film. So even someone who's never seen the movie understands that they're looking at a symbol of celebration and joy.