Bycicle Meme Template

This image is the three-panel comic “Bâton-Roue” by French illustrator Corentin Penloup, created in 2011. Know Your Meme records the original on Penloup’s art blog in January 2011, an early Reddit repost in October 2012, and a major 2015 Tumblr edit labeling Donald Trump as the cyclist and his own comments as the stick. The comic’s memorable logic also evokes the French expression “mettre des bâtons dans les roues” (putting sticks in the wheels), but its specific source is Penloup’s comic. As a meme it depicts self-sabotage: someone deliberately creates an obstacle, suffers the predictable consequence, and may then blame someone or something else. Some versions add a fourth donation panel, but this template contains only the original three panels. The creator has discussed how users gave the drawing meanings he did not intend; treat political or personal applications as the poster’s framing, not as the artist’s original message.

A 444×604 three-panel comic shows a cyclist riding along a path, then deliberately putting a stick into the spokes of his own front wheel, and finally lying on the ground beside the fallen bicycle. The panel sequence runs top to bottom. The current manual layout has three separate caption areas aligned with the panels: slot 1 in panel 1, slot 2 in panel 2, and slot 3 in panel 3.

Follow the comic’s three panels in order. Slot 1 (top) identifies a person, goal, or plan that begins normally. Slot 2 (middle) names the person’s own avoidable action that undermines that same goal. Slot 3 (bottom) states the resulting failure, regret, or misplaced blame. Keep the causal chain unmistakable and the middle action attributable to the same person or group as slot 1. The humor is the visible mismatch between the stated goal and the self-created obstacle, followed by its predictable consequence. Do not add a fourth panel role; the current image ends at the crash.

1. Panel 1 (top): state the person’s goal, plan, or ordinary situation before the mistake.
2. Panel 2 (middle): name the self-inflicted action or obstacle that undermines that same goal.
3. Panel 3 (bottom): show the resulting failure, regret, or attempt to blame something else.

• A person undermines a stated goal through their own avoidable choice
• A team introduces a process obstacle and then suffers the consequence
• A relatable habit creates a problem that the person later complains about
• A plan fails because someone knowingly ignores a simple requirement or warning

• Preserve the panel order: goal first, self-sabotaging action second, consequence third.
• The middle action must plausibly cause the final problem and undermine the goal in panel 1.
• Keep the same person, team, or entity responsible for the goal and the self-created obstacle.
• Do not treat this template as four panels; the image ends with the cyclist on the ground.
• Avoid a third caption that introduces a new unrelated event instead of showing a consequence or blame response.