Success Kid Original Meme Template

The original beach photograph leaves room beside Sammy’s clenched fist for a small victory. Add the uncertain setup and the unexpectedly good result on the right.

A determined expression turns a modest stroke of luck into a personal triumph. The fist makes the result feel earned even when the caption describes pure chance.

This version keeps the sand and shoreline. Unlike the circular-background version, it works well with both captions beside the child rather than across his face and hand.

Laney Griner photographed her 11-month-old son Sam at a beach in Jacksonville, Florida. Her original Flickr page records the picture as taken on August 26, 2007 and uploaded on August 31 under the title “Why I oughta...” [1]

The photograph circulated under I Hate Sandcastles before the later Success Kid reading. By January 2011, the child’s cutout appeared in advice-animal captions about things turning out better than expected. This template retains the photographic background. [1] [2]

Place the setup in the open beach area at the upper right. Put the good result beneath it, keeping the child’s face and fist visible on the left.

Use a result you can explain in a few words. Finding an empty queue or getting exactly the right change suits this image better than a long account of a major achievement.

The uncertain start

In the open beach area at the upper right.

The small victory

On the sand at the lower right.

• Keep both captions short enough to fit beside the child.
• Give the reader a reason to expect a worse result.
• Save the small victory for the lower caption.
• Choose the colored-background version for wider top-and-bottom captions.