Waiting Skeleton

Still waiting.

Sometime in the early 2010s, an image began circulating: a skeleton sitting on a bench, waiting. Just waiting. The pose was patient, eternal, resigned. This was not a skeleton who expected anyone to arrive soon. This was a skeleton who had been waiting so long that death itself had come and gone.

The format was devastatingly simple. Top text: what you're waiting for. Bottom text: implied by the skeleton—you will die before it happens.

"Waiting for OP to deliver." "Waiting for Half-Life 3." "Waiting for my code to compile." "Waiting for my crush to text back."

The Waiting Skeleton became the patron saint of unfulfilled expectations. It captured that particular despair of knowing something will never happen but being unable to stop hoping. The skeleton didn't give up. The skeleton just... stayed.

The meme had roots in earlier "waiting for OP" jokes from the mid-2000s, but the bench skeleton crystallized the concept into its purest form. This wasn't angry waiting or frustrated waiting. This was acceptance waiting. This was "I have been here so long I am now bones" waiting.

The format peaked in the early-to-mid 2010s before fading into the background noise of internet culture. But the skeleton is still there, on that bench, waiting.

Waiting for you to use this format again.

Waiting for the meme to come back.

Still waiting.

Still.