Meme lore
What is the High Five meme?
The High Five meme (also called Drowning High Five) is a four-panel comic by artist Anton Gudim where a hand reaches out of water begging for help, but the other person high-fives it instead - and the drowning hand sinks. It satirizes unhelpful responses, tone-deaf advice, and performative support when someone actually needs help.
Origin & history
Anton Gudim, a Russian illustrator known for ironic social commentary comics, published this four-panel strip on Instagram and VK around 2017. The visual gag - misreading a drowning person's plea as a request for a high five - landed because it mirrored real frustrations with unhelpful friends, corporate platitudes, and performative concern.
The meme gained traction in mental health discussions, workplace humor, and political commentary, where users labeled each panel with a real problem and an absurdly useless response. Its simple cause-and-effect structure made it one of the most reusable formats for calling out "thoughts and prayers" energy when substantive help was needed.
The meme gained traction in mental health discussions, workplace humor, and political commentary, where users labeled each panel with a real problem and an absurdly useless response. Its simple cause-and-effect structure made it one of the most reusable formats for calling out "thoughts and prayers" energy when substantive help was needed.
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