memeworld

Sisyphus Boulder Meme Generator

Caption a Sisyphus line drawing: the task you thought was done on top, the reset that rolls it back on the bottom.

Drag a box to move it, or its corners to resize. Everything renders on your device — nothing is uploaded.

Meme lore

What is the Sisyphus Boulder meme?

Sisyphus Boulder is a blank black-and-white line drawing of a stick figure shoving a mesh-patterned boulder up a stippled slope. Captions treat everyday chores, bugs, and bureaucracy as the mythic punishment: finish the hill, watch it roll down.

Origin & history

The myth is ancient; the internet format is recent. Know Your Meme added “Sisyphus / Sisyphus Pushing a Boulder” on 2023-02-02, tracing joke uses back through 2010s 4chan drawings and a 2011 “they see me rolling” gag. In July 2023 TikTok overlay videos set to Duster’s “Me and the Birds” popularized Camus’s closing line “One must imagine Sisyphus happy.” This PNG is a 150×150 JPEG of one stipple-hill drawing, not Titian, von Stuck, or the photoreal “man vs rock” stock still.

Myth: Sisyphus, king of Ephyra, condemned to roll a boulder up a hill forever (Homer; later Zeus/Hades tellings). Essay: Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus, 1942. This still: unsigned stipple line drawing, photographer/artist unclear. Meme entry: Know Your Meme, 2023-02-02.

Caption this Sisyphus Boulder meme with your own text in the editor above, then download the finished PNG free — for Reddit, X, Instagram, WhatsApp, Discord or the group chat.

Best used for

  • a task that resets every time you finish it
  • the same bug after every patch
  • endless meetings or paperwork
  • chores that undo themselves
  • daily routines that never stay done

Template details

Size
600 × 600 px
Download
PNG
Caption slots
2
Layout
Caption Top Bottom
Category
Classic
ClassicWorkChoresBureaucracy

Step by step

How to make a Sisyphus Boulder meme

  1. 1

    Open the Sisyphus Boulder template

    The blank Sisyphus Boulder meme is already loaded in the editor at the top of this page. There is nothing to install and no account to create.

  2. 2

    Write your captions

    Type into the the claimed win and the reset fields in the panel beside the image, or tap one of the example captions to start from a working joke.

  3. 3

    Place the text

    Drag a caption box on the image to move it, or drag a corner to resize it. The text rewraps and shrinks to fit as you go.

  4. 4

    Download your meme

    Press Download PNG for the finished 600×600 image, or Copy to paste it straight into a chat. Turn the watermark off first if you would rather not have one.

How the joke works

Top is a short claimed victory or finished task; bottom is the immediate reset, recurrence, or boulder rolling back.

Tone: deadpan, despairing, quietly absurd

repetitionfutilityironic escalationself-own

Caption tips

  • Keep the top as a short setup or claimed victory.
  • Make the bottom the reset, recurrence, or consequence.
  • Favor present-tense phrasing and concrete repetitive tasks over retelling the Greek myth.
  • Captions covering the figure or boulder
  • Explaining who Sisyphus is
  • Using a photoreal or Greek-vase still — this is the stipple drawing
  • A task that actually stays finished

AI studio

Let AI write the captions

Describe the joke once and get four captioned variants on the templates that fit it — then open the one you like in this editor.

Generate captions

For agents

memeworld ships a REST API and an MCP server, so Claude, Cursor or your own agent can pull this template, caption it and render the image.

GET /api/v1/templates/sisyphus-boulder-1634Agent docs

Sisyphus Boulder meme generator FAQ

What is the Sisyphus Boulder meme?

Sisyphus Boulder is a blank black-and-white line drawing of a stick figure shoving a mesh-patterned boulder up a stippled slope.

How do I make a Sisyphus Boulder meme?

Open the editor at the top of this page, type your captions, drag the text where you want it, and download the finished PNG. It takes about twenty seconds.

Is the Sisyphus Boulder meme generator free?

Yes. Captioning and downloading are free, there is no account to create, and there is no cap on how many you make.

How many captions does the Sisyphus Boulder template take?

2 captions: the claimed win and the reset. You can leave any of them blank, and you can move or resize each box on the image.

Where does the Sisyphus Boulder template come from?

The myth is ancient; the internet format is recent. Know Your Meme added “Sisyphus / Sisyphus Pushing a Boulder” on 2023-02-02, tracing joke uses back through 2010s 4chan drawings and a 2011 “they see me rolling” gag. In July 2023 TikTok overlay videos set to Duster’s “Me and the Birds” popularized Camus’s closing line “One must imagine Sisyphus happy.” This PNG is a 150×150 JPEG of one stipple-hill drawing, not Titian, von Stuck, or the photoreal “man vs rock” stock still.

What file do I get?

A 600×600 PNG, ready to post to Reddit, X, Instagram, WhatsApp, Discord or the group chat.

Is there a watermark?

A small memeworld watermark is drawn in by default. Switch it off in the editor panel before you download and the export is clean.

Are my memes uploaded anywhere?

No. The renderer runs in your browser, so your captions and the finished image never leave your device.

Can an AI write Sisyphus Boulder captions?

Yes. Describe your joke on the Create page and memeworld writes captions onto the templates that fit it, ready to open in this editor. Agents can do the same through the REST API and the MCP server.

Related meme templates

Templates that share tags with Sisyphus Boulder — similar characters, formats and reactions, not just the most popular blanks.

Browse every template