This Is Fine

"This Is Fine" stands as one of the internet's most enduring and psychologically resonant memes, transforming a moment of personal vulnerability into a universal symbol for coping with overwhelming circumstances. The meme originated from a six-panel webcomic titled "On Fire" (also known as "The Pills Are Working") created by KC Green and published on January 9, 2013, as part of his Gunshow webcomic series (Know Your Meme, 2015). The comic features an anthropomorphic dog character known as "Question Hound" sitting calmly at a table with a cup of coffee as flames engulf the room around him.

The creation of this comic emerged from Green's personal struggles with mental health. As he revealed in interviews, he was 25 years old and working to find the right antidepressant medication dosage when he drew the strip. "I was still struggling with myself—with getting my anti-depressants and stuff right," Green told The Verge in 2016. "You know, every now and then you have these off days where shit is worse, but you're trying to ignore it" (Daily Dot, 2024). The comic's central theme of maintaining composure while everything falls apart reflected his own psychological state during this challenging period.

The full six-panel comic shows Question Hound's gradual deterioration as he attempts to maintain his calm demeanor, ultimately melting away while still insisting "things are going to be okay." However, it was the first two panels—showing the dog simply saying "This is fine" while surrounded by flames—that captured the internet's imagination. These panels were first posted to 4chan's /vr/ board on April 26, 2013, followed by a more significant Reddit post by user theonefoster on January 10, 2014, titled "Accurate representation of me dealing with university stress" (Know Your Meme, 2015).

The meme's viral trajectory accelerated throughout 2014 as it spread across Reddit, Tumblr, and Imgur. Its appeal lay in its perfect encapsulation of a deeply relatable psychological state: the cognitive dissonance of acknowledging that everything is falling apart while simultaneously trying to maintain normalcy. As Green noted, he "made it vague on purpose" so that "people interpret it how they want to" (NPR, 2023).

By 2016, "This Is Fine" had reached peak cultural saturation, becoming a defining visual metaphor for the era's political and social turbulence. The meme gained particular prominence during the contentious 2016 U.S. presidential election, with major news outlets like The New York Times declaring it "the meme this year deserves" (Wikipedia, 2025). The political appropriation reached a controversial peak when the official Republican Party Twitter account used the meme to mock Hillary Clinton's nomination, prompting Green to publicly request its removal while acknowledging that "everyone is in their right to use this is fine on social media posts" (Wikipedia, 2025).

The meme's enduring power lies in its psychological accuracy and infinite adaptability. Unlike many internet memes that rely on humor through absurdity, "This Is Fine" taps into genuine human experience—the universal tendency to minimize or deny crisis situations as a coping mechanism. It has been applied to everything from personal struggles with work stress to global crises like climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic, proving its relevance across contexts and time periods.

Green has maintained a complex relationship with his creation's success, acknowledging both its financial benefits and its overwhelming presence in his artistic career. The meme has spawned merchandise, animated adaptations, and even a planned video game, while Green has created follow-up works including "This Is Not Fine" (2016), where the dog finally acknowledges the crisis and takes action to extinguish the flames.