What is the Roll Safe Think About It meme?
Roll Safe (often mislabeled as the Eddie Murphy thinking meme) shows actor Kayode Ewumi tapping his temple with a knowing smirk, implying flawed but confident logic. The format is used for bad life hacks and galaxy-brain jokes like "can't be broke if you don't check your bank account."
How the joke works: Put a relatable problem or goal in the top box, then make the bottom box a smug, illogical workaround that pretends to outsmart it.
Where it comes from
Roll Safe is a character created by Kayode Ewumi for the BBC Three mockumentary series #HoodDocumentary, which aired in 2016. The temple-tap gesture appeared in a scene where Roll Safe offers deliberately bad advice with unearned confidence. A screenshot of the moment was posted to Twitter in early 2017 and quickly went viral as a reaction image.
Despite frequent misattribution to Eddie Murphy, the meme is entirely Ewumi's Roll Safe character. It became a staple format on Black Twitter, Reddit, and Instagram for "can't have X if you never Y" logic - celebrating obviously flawed reasoning presented as genius. The meme peaked in 2017–2018 and remains popular for satirizing self-help advice, financial denial, and overconfident bad ideas.
When to use it
- Flawed financial logic like avoiding debt by ignoring bills
- Bad life hacks presented as genius solutions
- Dating humor about avoiding heartbreak by never committing
- Work jokes about avoiding stress by not checking email
- Satirical takes on self-help and motivational advice
How to make a Roll Safe Think About It meme
- 1Type your captionsFill in Top Text and Bottom Text. You can also tap the meme and type right on it.
- 2Pick a styleKeep the original look or switch to Impact, dark text, or subtitles. Add more text if the joke needs it.
- 3Generate and downloadHit Generate meme, then save a PNG or JPG, or copy it straight into a chat.
