Drowning In Shallow Water

On November 25, 2015, artist Sako Asko posted "El Ahogado" to Instagram: a three-panel comic depicting a man's anguished face emerging from water, tears streaming, clearly in mortal peril—until the final panel pulls back to reveal he's sitting upright in a puddle barely covering his lap. The diagnosis was immediate: this man was being dramatic as hell.

The artwork languished in relative obscurity for three years before Reddit and Facebook discovered its true potential as an object-labeling template. By 2019, the format had become the internet's favorite way to call out exaggerated suffering. "My bank account" drowning while "my savings account I forgot about" sat safely in the shallow end. "Me panicking about a deadline" while "three weeks of buffer time" watched from the background.

It shares spiritual DNA with Drowning High Five—both mining the rich vein of aquatic melodrama—but where that format mocked unhelpful assistance, this one targeted self-inflicted victimhood. The first-world problems format had found its final, most aesthetically pleasing form.

Peak engagement arrived in early 2020, just as a global pandemic gave everyone actual problems to complain about. Suddenly, dramatizing minor inconveniences felt gauche. The format that thrived on performative distress couldn't compete with genuine crisis.

Rest in shallow peace. The water was never that deep.