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Bad Joke Eel meme template

Bad Joke Eel is a meme format on WhatiMeme. The eel is the straight-faced teller of a corny joke. The open mouth and blank stare sell a dad-joke or pun that is meant to earn a groan, not a real laugh. The image is the delivery; the joke itself is the caption.

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A close-up underwater photo of a large brown moray eel filling most of the frame, head toward the right. Its skin is wrinkled and mottled, its mouth is slightly open with small white teeth visible, and one large pale eye looks forward. The background is dark water, with a pale rocky surface at the lower right, thin feathery growth at the upper left, and coral-like shapes along the right edge. No text is printed on the image.

How to write this meme

Write a two-beat groaner. Put a normal-sounding setup on top and a short pun underneath. Keep both lines readable at a glance, and do not explain that the joke is bad — the eel's face already does that.

Caption zones

  • Top text — The setup. In the dark water above the eel so the eye and the open mouth stay visible.
  • Bottom text — The pun. Across the bottom, below the open mouth. Do not cover the eel's eye or mouth.

Example captions

  • Top text: Why did the eel cross the reef
  • Bottom text: To get to the other tide

It copies a familiar joke shape, then swaps in a sea pun the blank face refuses to acknowledge.

  • Top text: I started a band underwater
  • Bottom text: We only play bass

The setup sounds like a normal brag, and the one-word pun lands because the eel looks completely serious.

  • Top text: Why was the goldfish broke
  • Bottom text: It spent all its scales

The money setup points somewhere else, then the fish pun makes the whole line feel proudly cheap.

  • Top text: What did the kelp say at the party
  • Bottom text: I'm frond of you all

The pun only works if you hear "fond," so the deadpan eel has to carry a joke that is slightly too pleased with itself.

  • Top text: I did a set on the ocean floor
  • Bottom text: It sank immediately

It uses the eel as a failed comic whose face never changes, so the failure is the joke.

Common mistakes

  • Putting the punchline on top and the setup on the bottom
  • Writing a clever joke instead of a corny one
  • Making either line too long to fit the photo
  • Describing the eel instead of giving it a joke to say
  • Filling only one of the two caption slots
  • Adding "get it?" or "bad joke" in the caption

Also known as

Moray Eel Joke

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