Description: A straightforward promo image for DC's Lanterns became an X meme about dressing two serious-looking men as entirely different duos. Here's the September 2026 post that set off the edits and why the awkward costumes are part of the joke.
If you've seen two men strolling down a street, suddenly dressed as SpongeBob and Patrick, you've probably encountered “Thoughts on Lanterns.” The meme takes a promotional picture from DC's Lanterns and treats its two-person composition as a blank canvas for characters from anywhere else. The straighter the original faces, the more ridiculous the crossover feels.
From a television question to a costume contest
The original photo features Aaron Pierre as John Stewart and Kyle Chandler as Hal Jordan, two central characters in Lanterns. On September 4, 2026, X user @fmjiggy posted the image with a simple question: “Thoughts on Lanterns 2026?” It was a conventional request for opinions about the show; Know Your Meme records around 35 likes after six days.
On September 8, @jadeladeljadel reused the question but crudely edited different clothes onto the actors. That post drew more than 53,000 likes and 3,700 reposts in two days, according to the meme archive. The image was still being presented as a question about Lanterns, even as the people in it were rapidly becoming someone else.
The street that connects every fictional universe
The remix possibilities became clear almost immediately. A September 8 edit made the walkers look like the protagonists of Cuphead. September 9 brought versions featuring SpongeBob and Patrick and Walter White and Jesse Pinkman from Breaking Bad. Those are documented X examples, rather than evidence that each franchise officially joined the DC project.
To join in, keep the paired figures or the “Thoughts on ...?” setup and redraw their clothes, faces or identities. A neat illustration works, but a gloriously rough outfit edit can be even funnier: the caption acts perfectly serious while the costumes plainly refuse to cooperate.
The original question asked for thoughts on a superhero show. The meme's answer became “Which completely unrelated duo should walk down this street next?” It's a very busy sidewalk for a single publicity photo.
Source: Know Your Meme, “Thoughts On Lanterns” (added September 10, updated September 14, 2026). Dates, posts and engagement figures follow the archived examples; they are snapshots, not worldwide reach estimates.
