Gru's Plan
Gru's Plan is a four-panel exploitable comic from Despicable Me, in which Gru presents his moon-theft plan on a whiteboard and slowly realizes the third panel contains a drawing of a toilet. The source scene comes from the film released July 9, 2010, and the meme was born March 9, 2018 when Redditor FieldMarshalSixDans posted an edit to r/deepfriedmemes. The joke depends on viewers spotting the flaw themselves before the final confused-Gru panel.
Names & aliases
What’s it called?
One umbrella name, many instance formats — here is how the names nest.
-
UmbrellaDespicable Me memes
The four-panel presentation-board edit where Gru's own plan backfires on him
-
InstanceGru's Plan
KYM entry name; also the imgflip template name, ID 131940431 (verified via imgflip API 2026-11-08).
-
InstanceGru presentation board meme
Descriptive name used for the format (four-panel comic of Gru at his presentation board).
-
InstanceGru meme
The head term this page targets ('gru meme' in the KMT/word库 pool).
Usage
How to use it
Tone
self-owning / ironic.
Where it lands
Plans whose third panel reveals they defeat their own purpose — the joke lands on Gru's confused face.
How it evolved
Source scene: Despicable Me, released July 9, 2010 (Gru presents his moon-theft plan and finds a toilet drawing); meme born March 9, 2018 (Redditor FieldMarshalSixDans on r/deepfriedmemes).
Easy to get wrong
The whole joke is the unnoticed third panel — if you spell the flaw out, the confused-Gru payoff dies. And the panels have a fixed reading order; scrambling them breaks the setup.
Origin
Origin & timeline
- 2018Source scene: Despicable Me, released July 9, 2010 (Gru presents his moon-theft plan and finds a toilet drawing); meme born March 9, 2018 (Redditor FieldMarshalSixDans on r/deepfriedmemes) — Reddit (r/deepfriedmemes, then r/MemeEconomy) for the meme; the scene is from the Illumination film
- 2018March 9, 2018: FieldMarshalSixDans posts the four-panel screencap meme to r/deepfriedmemes; the same day dankbob_memepants_ reposts it to r/MemeEconomy where it gathers 18,000+ upvotes and 250 comments in 24 hours (KYM).
- 2018March 11, 2018: variations flood r/dankmemes (21,000+ upvotes for a Nazi-parody edit), r/memes (daylight-savings and education versions, 4,600-6,000 upvotes each) (KYM).
- 2018March 12, 2018: a Droste-effect recursion version hits r/MemeEconomy and a GIF version takes r/me_irl with 32,000+ upvotes in six hours (KYM).
- 2018March 14, 2018: PewDiePie's Meme Review covers Gru's Plan, pushing it to his huge audience (KYM).
Verifiable sources
Templates
Make your own
Open the Gru's Plan generator — imgflip↗We link out to generators and blank templates; meme images are never rehosted on memefern.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
What is the Gru meme?
An exploitable four-panel comic of Gru from Despicable Me presenting a plan on his whiteboard. Edits add an unexpected third panel that undermines the plan, ending with Gru looking back at the board in confusion. KYM files it as 'Gru's Plan.'
What movie is the Gru meme from?
Despicable Me, released July 9, 2010. In the original scene Gru presents his plan to steal the moon and discovers a drawing of himself on the toilet hidden in the pages (KYM).
When did the Gru meme start?
March 9, 2018, when Redditor FieldMarshalSixDans posted a four-panel version to r/deepfriedmemes. It hit r/MemeEconomy the same day and passed 18,000 upvotes in 24 hours (KYM).
How does the Gru meme format work?
Panel 1-2 set up a plan, panel 3 (the added edit) reveals the flaw or twist, and panel 4 shows Gru turned around, staring at the board in dawning confusion. The humor depends on panel 3 being something Gru himself failed to notice.
Who reviewed the Gru meme?
PewDiePie covered Gru's Plan in episode 12 of his Meme Review series on March 14, 2018, which drove another wave of popularity (KYM).