He’s been the subject of many a meme, but what is the Chris Evans laughing meme all about? About a decade ago, Chris Evans was likely best known for either playing Ramona Flowers’ evil ex-boyfriend Lucas Lee in Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World or for his stint as playboy superhero Johnny Storm (AKA Human Torch) in Fox’s middling Fantastic Four duology. However, when Evans started playing Steve Rogers/Captain America in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, he was catapulted to international stardom and has since become one of Hollywood’s most meme-able actors as a result.
With the MCU being the biggest franchise ever, Chris Evans’ role as Captain America has understandably inspired many memes – including some particularly funny ones that riff on the hero’s legendary “No, I don’t think I will” line from Avengers: Endgame. There’s a lot of hilarious, non-MCU-related Evans memes too, like those that compared him to a jobsworth cop or ‘70s porn star after he was seen sporting a dodgy mustache for his role in Broadway play Lobby Hero or the tidal wave of memes that emerged when the star accidentally posted his own nudes to Twitter.
One of the funniest Chris Evans memes is – funnily enough – based around pictures of him laughing. It’s a meme made possible because the actor laughs a whole lot in interviews. The fact that people can make eight-minute-long video compilations of Chris Evans laughing is proof that he finds anything and everything hilarious. So, his habit of bursting into laughter at a moment’s notice spawned the befittingly titled Chris Evans Laughing meme – but what is the meaning behind it?
Otherwise known as the Chris Evans Laughing Scale, the meme is made up of pictures of the actor in various fits of laughter. As the pictures progress, Evans leans further and further back until he’s literally on the floor laughing. The meme is often used to rate how funny something is or to demonstrate how laughable a certain situation is.
As memes often do, the Chris Evans Laughing Scale has morphed into other forms such as one depicted the actor laughing himself to death by replacing the last image with a panel from the Marvel comics depicting when Captain America was shot and killed in the aftermath of Civil War. The meme emerged in late 2018 and quickly went viral, causing many MCU fans to speculate it was a sign Captain America would die in the then forthcoming Endgame.
Of course, Captain America didn’t die in Avengers: Endgame but rather showed up really old at the end of the movie after going back in time to live out his days with his long-lost love Peggy Carter. However, Evans’ time in the MCU is done but that doesn’t necessarily mean the Chris Evans meme train will end anytime soon. In 2022 the actor will voice Buzz Lightyear in Pixar’s forthcoming Toy Story spinoff Lightyear which is sure to inspire more memes that’ll hopefully be as funny as the Chris Evans laughing meme.