The I love you meme originated in the Supernatural fandom, using screencaps from episode 18 of season 15, where Castiel tells Dean that he loves him. The canon confirmation of Destiel led to a wide variety of memes, many of which referenced current news stories as well as fannish events.
Following this trend, the "I love you" meme is used to convey news and current events. The first image (almost) always shows Cas saying I love you. The second image has Dean imparting news to Cas. For good news stories, the response may be "I love that [news story]".
Fan Comments
Variations on the Meme
Within Supernatural fandom, this meme sometimes depicts Dean directly responding to Cas without changing the subject. The meme is still used to convey news, but it is news that is relevant to the pairing of Cas and Dean. This most often occurs on anniversaries of the Destiel love confession or Destiel's fanon wedding, with Dean responding in a way that acknowledges the anniversary.[7]
Subversion
- Example by maybenextjuneillgettoloveyou, Archived version, 2023
- hey guys im from reddit how do i use this meme by nadi196, 2023 - using it (deliberately?) for unimportant news
Criticisms
- 'how the destiel meme comes across every time i see it' - See Real Life Events in Fanworks
Examples
- #i love you, Archived version, by nicostiel (26 December 2021) - responding to new banned tags in a Tumblr update
- comments from a tumblr post by vaiva-arts., Archived version
- Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago home is being raided by the FBI, Archived version by thebibliosphere (8 August 2022) - meme edited to match the news being delivered
- Dec 06, 2022, Archived version by johnlockdynamic (date in title) - meme used to announce election runoff results
- more twitter drama, Archived version from 24 April 2023 - uses gifs that show more of the scene than usual (but fits the joke/arc of the story being delivered well)
- staff didn't give us an April Fools thing this year about Tumblr's lack of April Fools joke in 2025 (alt link)
Fandom
- meta and further memes, Archived version by marauers4ever, particularly discussion the "news from clowns" meme. Posted 28 January 2021.
- destiel-confession-news, Archived version, a tumblr blog devoted to "recent events delivered to you in the good old destiel confession format" (active October 2022-present)
- Destiel News Network, Archived version - older blog doing the same thing (active February 2021 - September 2022)
- i mean you CAN go to tumblr for breaking news but it will be typed on supernatural screencaps, Archived version from a discussion of Tumblr and Twitter's respective merits (that Twitter reports breaking news). Several posts dating mostly to November 2022
- POV for when you are going to learn about a recent massive historical and political event for the first time:, Archived version, by bloodybellycomb, posted 5 November 2022.
- I don’t want to find out about world events anymore, posted by a-tian (June 2023) - subversion of/commentary on the meme
Fanfic
- I've never watched a single episode of spn but I've been thinking about the implications of being stuck inside a meme, Archived version by biverly-switzler, posted June 2023 - fanfic/commentary interpreting the reuse of the meme as a time loop