The I fear no man meme originates from the multiplayer first-person shooter game Team Fortress 2’s video Meet The Pyro. It was the last Meet the Team video member introduced by Valve. The video was uploaded on Youtube by the official handle of Team Fortress on June 27, 2012. It has received more than 40 million views by April 2022.
In the video, another character Heavy (Schwartz) is a large man from the Dzhugdzhur Mountains of the USSR who literally panics when asked about Pyro goes to show how terrifying pyro’s story is. He says,” I fear no man. But that thing… it scares me.”
Meme Format
The format of the I fear no man meme is a comic 2×2 panel and also a 1×3 panel. The initial use of the template points to a 4 pane version.
Spread
When Villager makes an appearance in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Super Smash Bros. for Wii U as a playable character, on June 12, 2013, YouTuber Cirque Du Galaxy uploaded a video “Meet The Villager” mixing both the above trailers.
On February 19, 2014, a MemeCenter user TheMatrixman posted a meme on Sheriff Woody, a character from Disney–Pixar Toy Story franchise. But the trend started after Tumblr user mickeymousesenpai posted the macro using the modern meme format on Oct 21st, 2017 and an unknown Reddit user [account deleted] posted it on November 2nd, 2017 in the subreddit r/dankmemes. Both memes were viral on their respective platforms and gave birth to the trend.
