It’s hard to explain the enduring appeal of Bonjour Bear memes, because I literally don’t get it. It’s just a polar bear peeking out of its little snow buried hidey-hole saying, “Bonjour” to everyone like a villager in Beauty and the Beast.
According to Know Your Meme, it first became popular in the long-ago days of 2019, but it’s been making a resurgence in the last month. Maybe it’s because the adorableness of the photo compared with the reality of what a polar bear would do to you if you fell into its layer is a fun dichotomy.
Or maybe it’s because we are all Bonjour Bears, lurking in our homes and peaaking out to see if the coast is clear. It isn’t, so we retreat to hibernate once more. The Bonjour Bear has also gained traction as it’s been paired with Adios Wormhole, according to StayHipp, an image of a man leaving reality to enter a wormhole. That meme started circulating in March. Once again, very reflective of the current world we are living in.