About

30 Times the Glass Was Not Strong Enough refers to a fan art meme format based on a photoshopped image of a woman walking through a glass door as it shatters behind her. Originally used as a thumbnail for an entertainment video on YouTube, the image has been used as a meme format since 2021.

Origin

On March 30th, 2021, YouTube channel MAD LAB fan uploaded a video titled "30 Times The Glass Was Not Strong Enough", a compilation of 30 clips of glass and glass objects breaking and being broken by people, animals, and weather effects.^[1] The video, since removed, used a photoshopped image of a woman walking through a glass door or window as it shatters into tiny pieces behind her (shown below). On October 21st. 2021, Tumblr^[2][3] user empezardexerox posted a screenshot of the thumbnail together with the title, with the post gaining over 86,500 likes and reblogs in three years.

The post was followed by Tumblr^[3] user polargeist posting screenshots of two more entertainment videos with a sightly altered thumbnail and commenting, "she cant keep getting away with this".

Spread

On November 1sth, 2021, Tumblr^[4] user howdyboh posted the earliest found redraw based on the thumbnail, a fan art of Black Butler character Grell Sutcliff that received over 250 reblogs and 1,100 likes in three years (shown below).

In the following years, more redraws of the image featuring various fictional characters were shared online on X, Tumblr and other sites. For example, on September 12th, 2022, X^[5] user @KILLCH0PDELUXE posted an ULTRAKILL version of the meme that received over 400 reposts and 2,300 likes in two years (shown below).

Additionally, the caption has seen independent use online as catchphrase, used to comment on videos of glass objects being broken.^[6]

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References