Outstanding Move Meme Generator
Outstanding Move meme. A chess piece on the board with text dripping in sarcasm. Generate yours for any decision that was either secretly brilliant or spectacularly stupid.
Outstanding Move meme. A chess piece on the board with text dripping in sarcasm. Generate yours for any decision that was either secretly brilliant or spectacularly stupid.
What is the Outstanding Move Meme?
A chess-themed meme format pairing the phrase "Outstanding Move" with any decision or action. The tone is deliberately ambiguous, functioning as either genuine praise for clever thinking or biting sarcasm for a terrible choice that somehow worked or definitively did not.
Also Known As
- Chess Meme Outstanding
- Outstanding Move Chess
- Brilliant Move Meme
- Sarcastic Chess Move
- Big Brain Move Meme
About the Outstanding Move Meme
A chessboard. Pieces in position. The caption reads "Outstanding Move" with the confidence of a grandmaster, applied to a decision that a grandmaster would weep over. Or, occasionally, to a decision so unexpectedly clever that the chess metaphor is earned. The format refuses to tell you which it is. You have to decide whether the person deserves the praise or the mockery.
A still image of a chessboard paired with the caption "Outstanding Move," originally posted on Reddit around 2018. The sarcasm is built into the format: the "outstanding move" is almost never actually outstanding. The chess imagery implies strategic thinking, but the decisions being described are usually the opposite of strategic. The format works in both directions, though. Sometimes the move genuinely was clever, and the chess board validates it. The ambiguity is part of the appeal. For another "genius or idiot?" format, see Roll Safe (bad ideas as smart). For actual escalating intelligence, see Expanding Brain.
How to Make a Outstanding Move Meme
- The chessboard is set. Your move is ready to be judged
- Top text describes the decision, strategy, or action being evaluated. Bottom text delivers the verdict: "OUTSTANDING MOVE," whether you mean it sincerely or sarcastically
- The format lives in the gap between the chess imagery (strategic brilliance) and whatever you actually did (probably not strategic brilliance). Lean into the contrast
- White Impact text with black outline reads cleanly over the chessboard aesthetic. Keep the top text descriptive enough that the sarcasm of "Outstanding Move" lands without explanation
- Move evaluated. Download the PNG to praise someone's decision-making (sincerely or otherwise), or Copy it into any conversation where someone just did something either genius or inexplicable
When to Use the Outstanding Move Meme
Academic "Strategy"
- •Guessing on every multiple choice question and passing / Outstanding Move
- •Writing a paper in 2 hours that gets a better grade than the one you spent a week on / Outstanding Move
- •Dropping a class the day before the final / Outstanding Move
- •Emailing the professor asking what the exam covers, word for word / Outstanding Move
- •Choosing the essay option because you can write confidently about things you don't fully understand / Outstanding Move
Workplace Chess
- •Scheduling a meeting to avoid another meeting / Outstanding Move
- •Replying "per my last email" instead of re-explaining the same thing / Outstanding Move
- •Taking a sick day on the day of the team-building event / Outstanding Move
- •Automating your own job and not telling anyone / Outstanding Move
- •Volunteering for the project nobody wants because you know it'll be easy / Outstanding Move
Relationship & Social Tactics
- •Breaking up right before Valentine's Day to save on gifts / Outstanding Move
- •Saying "I already ate" to avoid eating your friend's experimental cooking / Outstanding Move
- •Wearing headphones with no music to avoid conversations / Outstanding Move
- •RSVPing "maybe" to every event so you're always technically on time / Outstanding Move
- •Complimenting someone's outfit so they don't notice you're wearing the same thing as yesterday / Outstanding Move
Example Outstanding Move Meme
Made with meme.app
Last updated:
Play I Have A Meme
Use memes like this one to battle other players in our free multiplayer caption game — right here on meme.app.
Start playing →
