‘How to fit this into my banner’: Why poorly cropped images are all over your feed

The humor of bait and switching has always existed: to set up an expectation, then turn it over on your head. It is one of the oldest tips in comedy, and right now, it revives an old trend on X.

Users play intelligently with profile banners. The configuration generally starts with an article on difficulties in crop or format an image. But when you click in their profile to check, the banner reveals something completely different – often a joke that undercuits the original image or transforms it into a punchline.

It is not a whole new joke either. According to Know Your Even, it goes back at least 2019, when it started with a woman publishing photos side by side of herself and her boyfriend and asking him how to integrate both in his header. The gag has passed for a while but resurfaced in 2023 when the users began to publish images of garbage cans, only for the cropped banner to reveal the person they called “trash”.

For example, a fan of the lions posted to try to crop a photo of the recipient recruit Issac Teslaa. Click on, and the banner is not at all Teslaa – it is a goat, indicating that it is the “goat” (the biggest of all time). This is the formula: a visual bait and a switch that allows people to label a person, a team or a film – whether emblematic or terrible – without saying it downright.

Credit: Mashable / @ SBOLEK1 screenshot

Credit: Mashable / @ SBOLEK1 screenshot

The trend has particularly taken off on Twitter sports, where fans use it to beat players or roast rival teams.

This tweet is currently not available. It can be loaded or has been deleted.

This tweet is currently not available. It can be loaded or has been deleted.

This tweet is currently not available. It can be loaded or has been deleted.

But that is not limited to sports – Stan Twitter also recovered it, but often more loose. In these circles, the “bad harvest” concerns less an intelligent revelation and more on the intentically sloppy shaping, played just for pleasure. Like most jokes on viral Twitter, it bikes and out of popularity – and right now, it has another great moment.