How Tall Is Olaf from Frozen

What's in the picture

The frame is taken from the cartoon “Frozen”: a snowy forest with frost-covered trees in a purple haze. On the left, Anna sits in the snow in a purple hooded cloak, holding a braid and looking down and to the right. On the right is Olaf: a white snowman with a carrot nose, coal for buttons, and twig arms, looking up in surprise. A clay jug stands nearby.

In the upper right corner, a Google search window is overlaid. The search bar reads “olaf's height,” and the results show “5 foot 4 inches” with a small picture of the snowman. The screenshot makes the frame look like evidence, and viewers start comparing sizes.

The way the frame was chosen matters too: Anna isn't looking at Olaf, while he looks up in surprise, as if he has just heard about his own height. This random scene is convenient for captions: it already has a reaction, and all that's left is to add the number.

Where the number came from

According to meme reviews, on October 3, 2019, a user of a fan wiki added a claim to the Olaf article that his height is 5 feet 4 inches. The information was wrong, but the search engine displayed it in its info card. In December 2019, amid renewed interest in the second film, users noticed the figure.

On December 6, 2019, a post reading “olaf is 5'4” with comparison pictures appeared on Twitter and gathered hundreds of thousands of likes. Then another user posted the search screenshot and asked how tall Anna and Elsa would be by that measure. The story was covered by English-language pop culture outlets.

Why it's funny

In the film, Olaf comes up to about people's waists, so a height of around 163 centimeters sounds absurd. If the snowman is that tall, Anna and Elsa must be far taller than any person: by users' calculations, about three and a half meters. The math is simple, but the conclusion is alarming, so the internet piled on comparisons with giants and with characters who were drawn as giants, along with a nod to the joke “Peppa Pig is seven feet tall.”

The meme shows how a single database error snowballs into folklore. People aren't amused by the falsehood itself but by the logic: they take the figure seriously and honestly follow it through to the end.

Caption examples

“Anna and Elsa, when it turned out Olaf is 5'4”” — a picture of giant princesses.

“Google: height, 5'4. My grandma: so you're 5'4, dear” — a change of perspective.

“Me when I check a source and it turns out to be a wiki anyone could edit” — a joke about trusting quick answers.

“Olaf reaching to kiss the chandelier” — an absurd consequence of the number.

How to use it

The meme works best as a reminder that even search results can be wrong. The caption can go above the picture without covering the screenshot. Quote the figures precisely: 5 feet 4 inches is about 163 centimeters.

Be sure to separate the joke from the facts: no one has officially confirmed Olaf's height; it is the result of an erroneous entry.

It works well to pair the picture with a question for the viewer, such as “How tall do you think Olaf is?”, with the answer given as a screenshot. This turns the joke into a small riddle and shows how easily any text in a search card can be taken as fact. For cautious captions, add that the figure originally came from an erroneous edit.