Why does everybody love moth memes?

Photo of a moth
Natalie Ktena

It's the one-sided love story that we can all relate to

Step aside cute penguin couple, there’s only one love affair that the internet cares about right now. Yeah, that’s right: moths and lamps. 

This tale of unrequited love between the winged creatures and, well, anything resembling a flame has so captured the internet’s imagination that it’s spawned memes. Many, many memes.

Moth Memes Tweet

The first moth meme came about in July, when a Reddit user posted a creepy-looking close-up of a moth sat outside their window. The picture got 33.5k upvotes, and sparked an impromptu caption contest. One user tried out, "Hey buddy you have any LAMPS?!"

Et voilà – the first moth meme was born. And it immediately spawned a number of imitators - at last count, there were nearly 6,000 images on Instagram tagged with #mothmemes...

Yup, we’re not sure how we feel about it giving us the eyes either.

Everyone was offering their take on this one-sided affair. 

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There were even historical interpretations. 

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Before we knew it, Moth was online dating: 

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But one thing was clear. Whether Moth is driving...

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... Taking part in a quiz show...

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... Or watching porn...

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... Moth’s only got one thing on the brain. Yup, you guessed it.

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When it comes to Moth’s favourite tunes, it seems there's now a playlist: 

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Take Moth shopping and top of its list is…

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And turns out, if you're a partner of Moth you'll have a few sleepless nights worrying about cheating.

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The internet cannot. Get. Enough. 

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Whether the memes are making you laugh or sending a shiver down the spine, we can kind of relate. Hasn’t everyone made moth eyes at that special someone?

Just us? Oh. 

We've all witnessed first-hand the attraction between moth and lamp. There are a couple of theories as to why they love them so. One explanation suggests they use the light of the moon and stars to navigate at night. Bring artificial light into the equation and they get confused and are drawn to it - so they fly around it till they are exhausted. Another theory suggests male moths are attracted to candles, because the infrared light spectrum the flame emits is similar to a female moth's sex hormones.

Anyway, the very real danger of getting burned by the flame doesn’t seem to be holding moths back, and that’s the kind of dedication we expect from a partner.

Get yourself someone that looks at you the way a moth looks at a lamp.Â