About
Forty Keks is an image macro featuring the Superman’s arch enemy Lex Luthor appearing to be in the middle of laughing, with a caption below reading “forty keks”. In discussion forums and image board communities, it is used as a reaction image to express one’s laughter.
Origin
The original image macro (below left) was inspired by an infamous Lex Luthor Took Forty Cakes illustration (below right) from the 1978 children’s dictionary The Super Dictionary. The word “cake” was replaced with a homophone “kek”, which is used in image board communities in a similar way as the word “lol”. The earliest known archived use of the image macro can be traced down to thread on 4chan’s /co/ (comics and cartoons) board in February 26th, 2014[1].
Spread
Various Examples
Search Interest
External References
[1]foolz.fireden – Early Example