Everyday
The weekend ends
The next working week arrives with more force than anyone asked for.
Read caption text
- What arrives
- Monday is back
Here’s Johnny Meme Template
The format
What does Here’s Johnny mean?
Also called Here's Johnny · Jack Nicholson Door · The Shining Door Meme
Jack Nicholson peers through a broken door with a grin. Give the face a new role: the interruption, task, or visitor that has found you again.
The image makes an arrival feel impossible to ignore. Whatever you name in the caption has reached you despite the door that should have kept it out.
A small interruption becomes funny against such an intense expression. A cat asking for breakfast or one more revision can make an entrance worthy of a horror film.
Origin
A television introduction becomes a horror-film entrance.
The image is Jack Nicholson as Jack Torrance in Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining (1980). Jack breaks through a door with an axe, puts his face into the gap, and delivers the line that gives the template its name. [1]
The phrase comes from Ed McMahon’s introduction of Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show. Online remixes and image captions borrow the film’s much more alarming version of that greeting. [1]
How the meme spread
Carson’s introduction supplies the phrase
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson begins, with Ed McMahon introducing the host. [1]
The Shining changes the tone
Nicholson’s Jack Torrance uses the greeting after breaking through the door. [1]
A LEGO version recreates the scene
Dan Parks posts an early online parody using LEGO figures. [1]
Caption guide
Name what has come through the door.
Place one short caption near the bottom of the portrait. Keep the eyes, grin, and broken edges of the door visible. Those details make the entrance recognizable.
A returning nuisance works well: Monday, an unfinished task, or a pet that wants your attention. Write the label as the thing arriving, then let the face announce it.
- What arrives
- The interruption or visitor, below Jack’s face.
- Use a short name or announcement.
- Pick an interruption that is difficult to keep out.
- Keep the grin clear instead of placing text across the mouth.
Here’s Johnny examples
Original captions to try with this template.
Work
Nearly finished again
A supposedly completed task finds another way back onto the schedule.
Read caption text
- What arrives
- One last revision
Pets
Breakfast has no snooze button
An early-rising pet turns a quiet morning into an unavoidable visit.
Read caption text
- What arrives
- Cat at 5 a.m.
Related formats
Try another way to tell the joke.
Sources1 reference
References for this template. Example captions are original.
- Here’s Johnny: Know Your Meme
Explains the television catchphrase, its use in The Shining, and online parodies.