Meme lore
What is the Tom the Lizard Waving GIF meme?
Tom the Lizard Waving is a reaction GIF and meme template featuring Tom, a wide-eyed green lizard from Disney and Pixar’s Hoppers. The character first attracted viral attention through a short theatrical post-credits teaser for Hoppers shown with Elio, where Tom repeatedly interacted with a lizard emoji and a text-to-speech voice. In this waving variant, his small, slightly awkward greeting works well for hesitant hellos, uncomfortable encounters, low-energy acknowledgments, and quietly surprised reactions.
Origin & history
The image appears to depict Tom, the green lizard character from Disney and Pixar’s Hoppers. Tom became recognizable after appearing in a short post-credits teaser for Hoppers presented with the 2025 Pixar film Elio. That teaser showed him repeatedly pressing a lizard emoji on a smartphone while a computerized voice said “Lizard,” creating the basis for the broader “Lizard Lizard Lizard” meme. The waving crop or edit circulated separately as a compact reaction GIF, often stripped of the phone and audio context. The exact first upload of this waving version is unclear, so the template is best cataloged as a Tom the Lizard reaction variant rather than as a separately originated meme character.
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