16 Drowning High Five Memes That Perfectly Capture Our Darkest Relatable Struggles

Visuals

A four-panel comic showing a hand reaching out of water. Similar to the logic of the Drowning Kid template, the scene centers on a failure to provide actual rescue. In the second and third panels, a second hand enters the frame and gives the drowning hand a high five. In the final panel, the second hand is gone, and the original drowning hand sinks below the surface.

Timeline

• June 19, 2017: Russian illustrator Anton Gudim (@gudim_public) uploaded the original wordless comic to Instagram. [Source: Instagram/gudim_public]
• Late 2017 - Early 2018: The image pivoted from a standalone dark comic to a reaction image. On February 26, 2018, the Facebook page Sarcasm Society applied a "When your ex is drowning" caption. [Source: Facebook/SarcasmSociety]
• Present: It has evolved primarily into an "Object Labeling" format, where the drowning hand represents a person’s crisis and the high-fiving hand represents a useless or counterproductive "solution."

• Steam Sales: The drowning hand represents a bank account, and the "help" is a Steam sale. Instead of saving the money, the sale just encourages more spending, ensuring the account stays empty.
• Adult Friendship: A variation on how adults vent. One person shares their struggle, and the friend responds with "hard relate" instead of actual advice. Both stay stuck in the same situation.
• Online Help: This version highlights the common experience on tech forums. A user asks for help with a bug, only for another user to reply, "I have the same problem," leaving the issue unresolved.