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The 'build the perfect man' meme is a troll-y masterpiece

Ladies, you have $5.

Chloe Bryan

on April 27, 2018

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

Ladies, you have $5 to build the perfect man, but have you considered spending that money on tacos instead?

Perhaps you have seen a few earnest "build the perfect man" posts online, presumably from the same Facebook friends who tag you in a pic because your name starts with "C," then insist that you "owe them a pizza." These posts (there's a good example on Know Your Meme) present you with a budget -- $200, for example -- then ask you to build a hypothetical man based on a list of traits. Each trait costs money, so you can only pick a few.

SEE ALSO: Why is SpongeBob so damn meme-able?

For example, if you spend $75 on "has a bed frame," you might give up "healthy relationship with his mother," which costs $150. Them's the breaks!

The "build the perfect man" meme is a little (read: a lot) more tongue-in-cheek. You still get a budget, and there are still priced-out traits. But the whole thing is designed so that you don't really have choices -- you can only afford a very specific man. Below, for example, is one of the earliest iterations of the meme. You can only afford Waluigi.

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And in this case, you can only afford Guy Fieri.

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Some of these memes make an argument that's a tried-and-true internet classic: a lot of men are trash. Even if you're looking for someone who's financially stable and gets along with your family, all you can really hope for is Shrek. (Not that there's anything wrong with Shrek.)

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Others argue, implicitly, that there's only one kind of perfect man: the one who's feasible through the meme's parameters. This route is popular among stan communities.