As such, a hamster with black round eyes too big for its face, accompanied by a wailing violin, is destined to be a hit, and a hit it has certainly proved to be.

Millions have shared this sad weird little guy, as he proves just too cute and too sad to leave alone.

It would appear Dogwyn Dolink is responsible for posting one of the earliest iterations of this meme as it is commonly presented, on the 10th of February this year, but going back further, one can find less edited versions of the furry little guy.

On the 2nd of September 2023, the Notorious J.O.V. posted an unedited picture of a hamster with the caption, this is me by the way, if you even care, and then prior to that in August they would post an image that looks a bit more squished with the caption, can I come over and stare at you like this.

By comparing these three images, one can get a pretty good idea of how it evolved over the course of a year.

These original captions are the reason why it's so often snapped up and popped into this is me if you even care, or when you're being mean, this is who you're being mean to templates, as the sad hamster appears custom made for those trends back in 2023.

It's reminiscent of other tropes, like the creature that says yippee, or the crying cats from the mid 2010s, both of which are positioned with similar proportions.

It seems like every year has a shitpost involving some sort of little thing with big eyes, as it perfectly represents the manner in which people feel when it comes to being vulnerable.

Over the years there's been a big shift in what is perceived as cute.

During the early years of the internet, animals were often presented as cute with airbrush photos or proportioned up photography, and they were normally conventionally cute.

Nowadays you'll find a wide assortment of ugly cute animals, such as rats, or in this case hamsters, edited to emphasise their bulging black eyes and weird little bodies.

It's almost bordering on fiction in terms of how their images are manipulated to look absolutely zany, and yet there are millions of people out there who see these and immediately think, yep, that's me.

That represents me perfectly.

Does it outshadow the status of dogs and cats?

No, of course not, but it does offer an excellent alternative.

As such, the sad hamster simply sits upon the digital timeline as yet a funny little dude with big eyes, demonstrating how popular the concept of the goofy animal has become over the past couple of decades.

What meme would you guys like me to give a lesson in next?

Let me know in the comments below.