A FAMILIAR MEME. A NEW CONTEXT.
Meme built on an escalating series of captions pairing images with ominous signs, starting from the old European superstition of a black cat as a harbinger of misfortune. Each new panel makes the omen worse.
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"Bad omen, very bad omen" is a meme in an escalating-series format. The structure is as follows: the first picture is captioned "bad omen," the second "very bad omen," and the third is chosen by the user and captioned with a sharp colloquial expression that sums things up. The joke rests on the contrast between the solemn tone of the omens and everyday situations.
The catalog dates the meme to 2017. The format is easily adapted: any user can substitute their own pictures and text while keeping the escalating structure.
The notion of a black cat as a harbinger of misfortune belongs to folk beliefs found in many European traditions. In different eras the black cat was associated with witches, illness, and ill fortune. In folk tradition the cat was often considered a creature close to the otherworld, and this attitude carried over into everyday omens about the home, the road, and chance encounters.
The meme draws on this tradition but does not reproduce it literally. The ironic effect arises from the fact that real misfortunes look not like superstition but like a logical consequence of circumstances. In this way the omens turn into a commentary on everyday life, which is exactly why the premise remains recognizable.
The specific author and the first publication from which the meme began have not been established. Most material on the topic concerns the superstition itself, not the meme's emergence. The meme dates to 2017, but this date is not confirmed by independent sources.
The meme, it seems, took shape from several pictures and captions that over time settled into the format.
The illustration in the catalog is a black-and-white photograph of a cat walking along wet sand at the water's edge. The animal is shown in profile, with a front paw raised. The image matches the theme of omens and is recognizable as a photograph of a black cat.
According to the catalog's description, the meme should include pictures of a black cat and of a woman with empty buckets, with the third picture captioned with a crude colloquial expression. The uploaded image contains no woman with buckets and no captions. So the illustration reflects only the first part of the meme and does not convey the whole format.
The meme is used to describe situations in which a string of small misfortunes or worrying signs adds up to a serious problem. The first two levels keep the tone of a warning, while the third shifts the joke into blunt everyday speech. Because of this, the meme suits both self-deprecation and commentary on outside events.
The format remains recognizable because the structure of the captions is clear without explanation. The viewer immediately sees the escalation and anticipates the final reaction, and it is the unexpectedness of that reaction that produces the main comic effect.
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