Divide By Zero

2005Catchphrase / image macro / internet slangclassic

Also known as: Dividing by Zero · OH SHI- · 1/0

Divide By Zero is a 2005 image-macro and internet-slang meme from 4chan and YTMND treating division by zero as triggering black holes, time paradoxes, and cosmic destruction.

"Divide By Zero" is an internet slang term and meme format built around the mathematical impossibility of dividing a number by zero, treating the act as something that would trigger catastrophic consequences like black holes, time paradoxes, or the total destruction of the universe. The joke originated on YTMND and 4chan's /b/ board between 2005 and 2006, and spread across forums, image boards, and demotivational posters throughout the late 2000s4. It got a second wind in 2015 when Apple's Siri was discovered to have a snarky pre-programmed response to "What is zero divided by zero?"6.

TL;DR

"Divide By Zero" is an internet slang term and meme format built around the mathematical impossibility of dividing a number by zero, treating the act as something that would trigger catastrophic consequences like black holes, time paradoxes, or the total destruction of the universe.

Overview

The Divide By Zero meme takes a real mathematical problem and turns it into a running joke about apocalyptic consequences. In math, dividing any number by zero is an undefined operation because no real number can satisfy the equation1. The meme extrapolates this impossibility to absurd extremes: if someone actually managed to divide by zero, it would rip a hole in spacetime, create a black hole, or just blow up the entire universe10.

The format typically pairs the concept with images of destruction, black holes, or explosions, often captioned with the interrupted exclamation "OH SHI-" to suggest the poster was cut off mid-sentence by the resulting catastrophe4. It also frequently appeared as demotivational posters showing impossible or paradoxical images with captions warning against dividing by zero3.

The mathematical concept behind the meme goes back centuries. Philosopher George Berkeley first formally addressed the logical problems of division by zero in his 1734 work *The Analyst*, a critique of the foundations of calculus12. In standard arithmetic with real numbers, division by zero is undefined because multiplying any number by zero always returns zero, making it impossible to reverse the operation5. In computing, attempting to divide by zero can generate error messages, crash programs, or return infinity values5.

The earliest known internet reference turning this into a joke appeared on YTMND on October 3, 2005. A site titled "1/0!!!!!!!!!!!!" featured an artist's illustration of a black hole, framing division by zero as a universe-ending event4.

The catchphrase took its more recognizable form on 4chan's /b/ board. According to Encyclopedia Dramatica, the earliest documented thread dates to December 8, 2006, where users shared their chat logs with ChaCha.com's search engine4. One anonymous poster asked the search representative, "do you know what happens when you divide by 0? things go BOOM so I hear." The representative apparently ignored the question entirely.

Origin & Background

Platform
YTMND (earliest reference), 4chan /b/ (popularization)
Creator
Unknown
Date
2005
Year
2005

The mathematical concept behind the meme goes back centuries. Philosopher George Berkeley first formally addressed the logical problems of division by zero in his 1734 work *The Analyst*, a critique of the foundations of calculus. In standard arithmetic with real numbers, division by zero is undefined because multiplying any number by zero always returns zero, making it impossible to reverse the operation. In computing, attempting to divide by zero can generate error messages, crash programs, or return infinity values.

The earliest known internet reference turning this into a joke appeared on YTMND on October 3, 2005. A site titled "1/0!!!!!!!!!!!!" featured an artist's illustration of a black hole, framing division by zero as a universe-ending event.

The catchphrase took its more recognizable form on 4chan's /b/ board. According to Encyclopedia Dramatica, the earliest documented thread dates to December 8, 2006, where users shared their chat logs with ChaCha.com's search engine. One anonymous poster asked the search representative, "do you know what happens when you divide by 0? things go BOOM so I hear." The representative apparently ignored the question entirely.

How It Spread

The joke moved off 4chan quickly. The earliest known instance outside the boards appeared on December 13, 2006, in the comments section of gaming blog Joystiq. The article described a series of satirical posts aimed at Joystiq by another gaming blog called The Game Rag, and commenters jokingly proposed that the recursive criticism would "cause a rift in time space, ultimately opening up a black hole".

Throughout 2007, Divide By Zero references popped up across multiple platforms. Fan art appeared on DeviantArt, with users creating illustrations of characters reacting to the mathematical impossibility. The joke spread to eBaum's World forums and 4chan's /v/ (video games) board. On September 22, 2007, someone added a formal definition to Urban Dictionary explaining the 4chan usage, describing it as an act that would cause "the implosion of the universe" and noting that Chuck Norris was supposedly the only person who could do it safely.

A February 2008 4chan thread suggested that "OH SHI-" should be the title for an imaginary video game achievement awarded for "successfully dividing by zero without creating a time paradox".

The meme got a boost in late 2008 when the Large Hadron Collider launched. CERN's particle accelerator triggered widespread (and mostly joking) speculation that it might accidentally create a tiny black hole on Earth's surface. The LHC quickly became linked to Divide By Zero humor on 4chan, since both involved the threat of reality-breaking consequences. That same year, a Yahoo! Voices article about a DDoS attack on 4chan cited "Divide By Zero" as a prime example of the site's meme culture alongside "O RLY".

Various image macros depicting hypothetical consequences of dividing by zero circulated on FunnyJunk, Very Demotivational, and Tumblr throughout the late 2000s and early 2010s.

How to Use This Meme

The Divide By Zero meme works in a few different ways:

- As a reaction: When someone does something logically impossible or self-contradictory, respond with "don't divide by zero" or post an image showing catastrophic destruction. - As an image macro: Take a photo of something paradoxical, impossible, or glitchy and caption it with text like "Someone divided by zero" or "OH SHI-." - As a demotivational poster: Frame an image of a black hole, explosion, or spatial anomaly with "DIVIDING BY ZERO" as the title and a warning as the subtitle. - As a comment punchline: When online discussions reach circular logic or recursive arguments, drop a Divide By Zero reference to suggest the thread is about to collapse reality.

The "OH SHI-" element typically appears cut off to imply the writer was consumed by the resulting catastrophe before finishing their sentence.

Cultural Impact

The meme peaked as a recognizable reference during the golden age of demotivational posters and 4chan culture (roughly 2006-2010), but it got an unexpected mainstream revival in June 2015. Users discovered that asking Apple's Siri "What is 0 divided by 0?" triggered a pre-programmed Easter egg response. Siri would reply: "Imagine that you have zero cookies, and you split them evenly among zero friends. How many cookies does each person get? See? It doesn't make sense. And Cookie Monster is sad that there are no cookies. And you are sad that you have no friends."

The salty response went viral quickly. *Breaking Bad* actor Aaron Paul tweeted telling his followers to try the trick. A Vine user named Mark W Smith captured the response on video. The HuffPost reported that the Easter egg worked on both iOS 8 and iOS 7, contrary to initial claims. The Siri moment tapped into the same energy as other "things virtual assistants say" jokes that were popular in that era.

The mathematical discussion around dividing by zero also attracted serious treatment. Popular Mechanics published an explainer noting that while dividing by zero breaks standard arithmetic, Newton's calculus actually relies on a version of dividing by zero through the concept of limits, where two points on a curve are moved infinitely close together. Physics Forums hosted discussions about whether zero and infinity could ever be formally defined in relation to each other.

Fun Facts

The mathematical impossibility of dividing by zero was first formally noted almost 300 years ago in George Berkeley's 1734 paper *The Analyst*, making the underlying concept far older than the internet itself.

In computing, dividing by zero doesn't always crash programs. Depending on the language and context, it can return positive infinity, negative infinity, or a special "NaN" (Not a Number) value.

The expression 0/0 is technically "indeterminate" rather than "undefined" because it could theoretically equal any number. As MathIsFun puts it: "Are there no zeros in zero at all? Or perhaps there is exactly one zero in zero?"

Some mechanical calculators, when given a division by zero, will physically loop forever, repeatedly subtracting zero from the dividend and never reaching a result.

The Joystiq comment thread that first spread the joke outside 4chan was itself about recursive criticism between two gaming blogs, making it a meta-joke about infinite loops.

Derivatives & Variations

Chuck Norris Divide By Zero:

A crossover with Chuck Norris Facts claiming he's the only person who can divide by zero and get an answer[3].

Large Hadron Collider memes:

The 2008 LHC launch merged with Divide By Zero imagery, framing the particle accelerator as an attempt to divide by zero on a planetary scale[4].

Siri's Cookie Monster response:

The 2015 Easter egg became its own viral moment, generating dedicated social media posts and celebrity engagement[6].

DeviantArt fan art:

Users created original illustrations of characters experiencing the consequences of dividing by zero, including the notable "Divided by Zero... Oh Shi..." piece by KuyaSaysRawr[9].

Demotivational poster variants:

Multiple templates on Very Demotivational and FunnyJunk showed everything from spatial distortions to exploding landscapes as supposed results of the forbidden calculation[4].

Frequently Asked Questions

Divide By Zero

2005Catchphrase / image macro / internet slangclassic

Also known as: Dividing by Zero · OH SHI- · 1/0

Divide By Zero is a 2005 image-macro and internet-slang meme from 4chan and YTMND treating division by zero as triggering black holes, time paradoxes, and cosmic destruction.

"Divide By Zero" is an internet slang term and meme format built around the mathematical impossibility of dividing a number by zero, treating the act as something that would trigger catastrophic consequences like black holes, time paradoxes, or the total destruction of the universe. The joke originated on YTMND and 4chan's /b/ board between 2005 and 2006, and spread across forums, image boards, and demotivational posters throughout the late 2000s. It got a second wind in 2015 when Apple's Siri was discovered to have a snarky pre-programmed response to "What is zero divided by zero?".

TL;DR

"Divide By Zero" is an internet slang term and meme format built around the mathematical impossibility of dividing a number by zero, treating the act as something that would trigger catastrophic consequences like black holes, time paradoxes, or the total destruction of the universe.

Overview

The Divide By Zero meme takes a real mathematical problem and turns it into a running joke about apocalyptic consequences. In math, dividing any number by zero is an undefined operation because no real number can satisfy the equation. The meme extrapolates this impossibility to absurd extremes: if someone actually managed to divide by zero, it would rip a hole in spacetime, create a black hole, or just blow up the entire universe.

The format typically pairs the concept with images of destruction, black holes, or explosions, often captioned with the interrupted exclamation "OH SHI-" to suggest the poster was cut off mid-sentence by the resulting catastrophe. It also frequently appeared as demotivational posters showing impossible or paradoxical images with captions warning against dividing by zero.

The mathematical concept behind the meme goes back centuries. Philosopher George Berkeley first formally addressed the logical problems of division by zero in his 1734 work *The Analyst*, a critique of the foundations of calculus. In standard arithmetic with real numbers, division by zero is undefined because multiplying any number by zero always returns zero, making it impossible to reverse the operation. In computing, attempting to divide by zero can generate error messages, crash programs, or return infinity values.

The earliest known internet reference turning this into a joke appeared on YTMND on October 3, 2005. A site titled "1/0!!!!!!!!!!!!" featured an artist's illustration of a black hole, framing division by zero as a universe-ending event.

The catchphrase took its more recognizable form on 4chan's /b/ board. According to Encyclopedia Dramatica, the earliest documented thread dates to December 8, 2006, where users shared their chat logs with ChaCha.com's search engine. One anonymous poster asked the search representative, "do you know what happens when you divide by 0? things go BOOM so I hear." The representative apparently ignored the question entirely.

Origin & Background

Platform
YTMND (earliest reference), 4chan /b/ (popularization)
Creator
Unknown
Date
2005
Year
2005

The mathematical concept behind the meme goes back centuries. Philosopher George Berkeley first formally addressed the logical problems of division by zero in his 1734 work *The Analyst*, a critique of the foundations of calculus. In standard arithmetic with real numbers, division by zero is undefined because multiplying any number by zero always returns zero, making it impossible to reverse the operation. In computing, attempting to divide by zero can generate error messages, crash programs, or return infinity values.

The earliest known internet reference turning this into a joke appeared on YTMND on October 3, 2005. A site titled "1/0!!!!!!!!!!!!" featured an artist's illustration of a black hole, framing division by zero as a universe-ending event.

The catchphrase took its more recognizable form on 4chan's /b/ board. According to Encyclopedia Dramatica, the earliest documented thread dates to December 8, 2006, where users shared their chat logs with ChaCha.com's search engine. One anonymous poster asked the search representative, "do you know what happens when you divide by 0? things go BOOM so I hear." The representative apparently ignored the question entirely.

How It Spread

The joke moved off 4chan quickly. The earliest known instance outside the boards appeared on December 13, 2006, in the comments section of gaming blog Joystiq. The article described a series of satirical posts aimed at Joystiq by another gaming blog called The Game Rag, and commenters jokingly proposed that the recursive criticism would "cause a rift in time space, ultimately opening up a black hole".

Throughout 2007, Divide By Zero references popped up across multiple platforms. Fan art appeared on DeviantArt, with users creating illustrations of characters reacting to the mathematical impossibility. The joke spread to eBaum's World forums and 4chan's /v/ (video games) board. On September 22, 2007, someone added a formal definition to Urban Dictionary explaining the 4chan usage, describing it as an act that would cause "the implosion of the universe" and noting that Chuck Norris was supposedly the only person who could do it safely.

A February 2008 4chan thread suggested that "OH SHI-" should be the title for an imaginary video game achievement awarded for "successfully dividing by zero without creating a time paradox".

The meme got a boost in late 2008 when the Large Hadron Collider launched. CERN's particle accelerator triggered widespread (and mostly joking) speculation that it might accidentally create a tiny black hole on Earth's surface. The LHC quickly became linked to Divide By Zero humor on 4chan, since both involved the threat of reality-breaking consequences. That same year, a Yahoo! Voices article about a DDoS attack on 4chan cited "Divide By Zero" as a prime example of the site's meme culture alongside "O RLY".

Various image macros depicting hypothetical consequences of dividing by zero circulated on FunnyJunk, Very Demotivational, and Tumblr throughout the late 2000s and early 2010s.

How to Use This Meme

The Divide By Zero meme works in a few different ways:

- As a reaction: When someone does something logically impossible or self-contradictory, respond with "don't divide by zero" or post an image showing catastrophic destruction. - As an image macro: Take a photo of something paradoxical, impossible, or glitchy and caption it with text like "Someone divided by zero" or "OH SHI-." - As a demotivational poster: Frame an image of a black hole, explosion, or spatial anomaly with "DIVIDING BY ZERO" as the title and a warning as the subtitle. - As a comment punchline: When online discussions reach circular logic or recursive arguments, drop a Divide By Zero reference to suggest the thread is about to collapse reality.

The "OH SHI-" element typically appears cut off to imply the writer was consumed by the resulting catastrophe before finishing their sentence.

Cultural Impact

The meme peaked as a recognizable reference during the golden age of demotivational posters and 4chan culture (roughly 2006-2010), but it got an unexpected mainstream revival in June 2015. Users discovered that asking Apple's Siri "What is 0 divided by 0?" triggered a pre-programmed Easter egg response. Siri would reply: "Imagine that you have zero cookies, and you split them evenly among zero friends. How many cookies does each person get? See? It doesn't make sense. And Cookie Monster is sad that there are no cookies. And you are sad that you have no friends."

The salty response went viral quickly. *Breaking Bad* actor Aaron Paul tweeted telling his followers to try the trick. A Vine user named Mark W Smith captured the response on video. The HuffPost reported that the Easter egg worked on both iOS 8 and iOS 7, contrary to initial claims. The Siri moment tapped into the same energy as other "things virtual assistants say" jokes that were popular in that era.

The mathematical discussion around dividing by zero also attracted serious treatment. Popular Mechanics published an explainer noting that while dividing by zero breaks standard arithmetic, Newton's calculus actually relies on a version of dividing by zero through the concept of limits, where two points on a curve are moved infinitely close together. Physics Forums hosted discussions about whether zero and infinity could ever be formally defined in relation to each other.

Fun Facts

The mathematical impossibility of dividing by zero was first formally noted almost 300 years ago in George Berkeley's 1734 paper *The Analyst*, making the underlying concept far older than the internet itself.

In computing, dividing by zero doesn't always crash programs. Depending on the language and context, it can return positive infinity, negative infinity, or a special "NaN" (Not a Number) value.

The expression 0/0 is technically "indeterminate" rather than "undefined" because it could theoretically equal any number. As MathIsFun puts it: "Are there no zeros in zero at all? Or perhaps there is exactly one zero in zero?"

Some mechanical calculators, when given a division by zero, will physically loop forever, repeatedly subtracting zero from the dividend and never reaching a result.

The Joystiq comment thread that first spread the joke outside 4chan was itself about recursive criticism between two gaming blogs, making it a meta-joke about infinite loops.

Derivatives & Variations

Chuck Norris Divide By Zero:

A crossover with Chuck Norris Facts claiming he's the only person who can divide by zero and get an answer[3].

Large Hadron Collider memes:

The 2008 LHC launch merged with Divide By Zero imagery, framing the particle accelerator as an attempt to divide by zero on a planetary scale[4].

Siri's Cookie Monster response:

The 2015 Easter egg became its own viral moment, generating dedicated social media posts and celebrity engagement[6].

DeviantArt fan art:

Users created original illustrations of characters experiencing the consequences of dividing by zero, including the notable "Divided by Zero... Oh Shi..." piece by KuyaSaysRawr[9].

Demotivational poster variants:

Multiple templates on Very Demotivational and FunnyJunk showed everything from spatial distortions to exploding landscapes as supposed results of the forbidden calculation[4].

Frequently Asked Questions