The Origin Story of the “Left Exit 12 Off Ramp” Meme
Discover the story behind the Left Exit 12 Off Ramp meme. From a 2013 drifting video to a viral Reddit template, learn why this car meme became so popular.
The “Left Exit 12 Off Ramp” meme is one of those internet images you’ve probably seen hundreds of times without thinking about where it came from. It’s instantly recognizable: a sign showing two options, and a car skidding sharply off the main road toward the exit, as if choosing the second option with reckless enthusiasm. On Reddit, Twitter, and Instagram you’ll see versions where the straight road and the exit represent two competing choices — one “normal” or expected, and one that’s more tempting, absurd, or simply more you. But how did that image become a meme? Let’s trace its roots. (Meming Wiki)
1. The Image That Started It All — A YouTube Car Video
The visual foundation of the meme actually comes from a YouTube video uploaded long before the meme existed. On July 4, 2013, a video titled “How to exit freeway like a boss” was posted by YouTuber Fredrik Sørlie. In that video you see a car drifting dramatically into an off-ramp on a highway in Lørenskog, Norway. This original clip had no added highway sign and no meme text — just a car taking a sharp turn off the road. (Know Your Meme)
The humor and visual punch of the car swerving so dramatically is what caught people’s attention. Alone, it’s an eye-catching driving video. But it wasn’t until later that someone had the idea to give it a storytelling purpose. (leftexit12.com)
2. Turning It into a Meme — December 2017 on Reddit
Despite the video being online since 2013, the Left Exit 12 Off Ramp format didn’t start spreading as a meme until late 2017. Around December 29, 2017, a Reddit user named anon90 in the HiddenLOL community posted a photoshopped version with a highway sign added. One side of the sign showed something the creator didn’t want, and the other side showed something they preferred — and the car was skidding straight to the preferred option. This post was titled “made a template, don’t know if it has potential”. (Know Your Meme)
From that initial template, others picked up the format and began applying it to all sorts of everyday dilemmas and choices. A post that gained particular traction around that time swapped in a New Year’s theme — with one sign saying a serious self-improvement goal and the other saying something more trivial like continuing to make memes. That version received thousands of upvotes and comments, helping spread the format further. (Know Your Meme)
By the start of 2018, Left Exit 12 memes were showing up all over Reddit, Imgur, Instagram, and Twitter, each with new jokes built around simple text changes. (Know Your Meme)
3. What the Meme Represents — Easy Choices vs Tempting Ones
At its core, the Left Exit 12 Off Ramp meme is about choices — especially ones where you should do something sensible, but instead you choose something fun, impulsive, or silly. The main road on the highway usually represents the expected or responsible option (“Study for finals”, “Save money”). The exit represents the more tempting choice (“Watch YouTube all night”, “Buy another game”). The car, labeled “me”, is shown skidding away from the main road toward the exit with little hesitation. (Meming Wiki)
What makes this format appealing is that it captures that feeling we all know too well: that pull toward something distracting or indulgent, even when we know it might not be the best idea. Whether it’s choosing pizza over salad, procrastination over work, or sleep over social plans, the meme makes it funny. (Meming Wiki)
4. Examples of Meme Use — From Everyday Life to Online Culture
Since its early Reddit days, the meme has become a flexible way to show decisions people make. A few real examples from social media:
- Someone labeled the straight road “Go to bed on time” and the exit “Watch one more video”, representing the late-night loops many of us fall into. (Reddit)
- In another version, someone used it for social identity humor: “Being the gender my family expects” vs “Being who I really am”. (Reddit)
- Programmer humor versions show “Fix bugs now” vs “Write more code I don’t need”. (Reddit)
Memes like these show how adaptable the template is. Sometimes the sign on the straight road is something people should do, while the exit is the thing they really want to do. Other times it’s used ironically or to poke fun at group behaviour. (Know Your Meme)
5. Why It Became So Popular
There are a few reasons this meme format caught on and stayed in use:
A. It’s simple and relatable. Someone veering off the expected path toward a tempting distraction is something most people understand immediately. (Meming Wiki)
B. It’s highly adaptable. You can plug in essentially any two options — serious or silly — which means the meme stays fresh. (Know Your Meme)
C. It creates visual humour. The exaggerated skid — the car almost sideways — adds comedic flair that matches the exaggerated choices people make. (Know Your Meme)
D. It spreads across platforms. Originally on Reddit, the format has traveled to other corners of the internet, from Instagram to meme communities. It’s easily shareable and instantly interpretable. (Know Your Meme)
6. What’s Real vs What’s Added
A fun part of the Left Exit 12 meme is that the highway sign itself isn’t originally from the drifting video. The video had no signs. The highway imagery — especially the overhead sign with arrows and text — was added later as part of the meme templates people created. This combination turned two unrelated things (a real drifting video and an American-style road sign) into a coherent meme format. (Meming Wiki)
Some users even researched where the sign image came from and found it resembles an exit sign on I-95/Route 128 in Massachusetts that used to be labeled Exit 12. That highway sign and the drifting footage were combined in Photoshop to create the familiar meme template. (Reddit)
7. Meme Language and Internet Culture
Looking at how this meme spread gives insight into internet culture more broadly:
- Memes often evolve from unrelated source material. An old video becomes remixable art. (Know Your Meme)
- Online communities iterate quickly. One person’s template becomes hundreds of different versions. (Know Your Meme)
- Relatable content travels fast. When many people see themselves in a joke, they share it with others. (Meming Wiki)
The Left Exit 12 Off Ramp meme isn’t just about a car drifting on a road. It’s about the human experience of making choices, sometimes irrational ones, and laughing at ourselves for it. That’s part of why it resonated — and why it remains a go-to meme format years after it first appeared. (Meming Wiki)
8. Final Thoughts
Memes come and go, but a few stick around because they speak to a basic part of how we think, feel, and behave. The Left Exit 12 Off Ramp meme captures quite literally a moment of someone deciding to swerve off the straight path and take a different route — whether that’s procrastinating, indulging, or just making a choice that feels right in the moment.
It began as a drifting-car video from 2013, was repurposed into a flexible format in 2017, and has since become one of the internet’s favourite ways to joke about impulsive decisions. It’s a perfect example of how something simple — a car and a sign — can become a deeply human and widely understood visual metaphor on the internet. (Know Your Meme)
References:
- Left Exit 12 Off Ramp meme entry — Know Your Meme. (Know Your Meme)
- Meme description and template history — Meming Wiki. (Meming Wiki)
- Early adaptation and meme spread examples — Amanda’s Blog. (amandasedm.home.blog)
- Various Reddit meme uses showing adaptability and context. (Reddit)