Start with an ordinary action or a bit of good news. End with the unlikely inconvenience that ruins it.
The smiling school portrait sits between a setup and an unfortunate result. Brian's luck can turn a discount into a bigger bill or make the one available parking space suddenly useless.
The captions describe an invented unlucky character. They aren't accounts of what happened to the person in the photograph. You can use first person for your own bad day or write the setup as a short action.
The photograph shows Kyle Craven. His friend Ian Davies used the school picture in a Reddit post on January 23, 2012, according to Know Your Meme's documented history. [1]
The image became an advice-animal-style format for embarrassing or unlucky outcomes, with a setup above the portrait and a reversal beneath it. [1]
Write a setup that sounds routine or promising. Then make the ending undermine that exact situation. A free upgrade that makes your charger incompatible is more connected than a random disaster after an unrelated event.
Hold the revealing word for the bottom caption. The smile looks more unfortunate when the reader discovers the catch after seeing the setup.
Original captions to try with this template.
The convenient space is empty for a reason. The bottom line reveals why Brian still can't park there.
The reversal turns a long-awaited purchase into one day of bad timing.
The sensible preparation creates the delay. The number makes the wait feel immediate.
References for this template. Example captions are original.
Kyle Craven's photograph, Ian Davies's post, and the format's 2012 circulation.
