The 'New Leo Meme' Created By Conan O'Brien At The 2026 Oscar Awards Is Forced, But Sticking

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About

The New Leo Meme or TFW You Didn't Agree To This, also known as the 2026 Oscars Leonardo DiCaprio Meme or Leonardo DiCaprio Smirking and Shrugging, is a forced image macro and reaction meme of actor Leonardo DiCaprio wearing a tuxedo and shrugging over the caption, "TFW you didn't agree to this." The meme was created by comedian Conan O'Brien during the 98th Academy Awards (Oscars) on March 15th, 2026, during a joke about DiCaprio being the "meme god" because of all the meme formats he has inspired. The meme was widely reported on over the following days, spreading on social media and inspiring variations, with some criticizing it as cringe or too forced.

Origin

On March 15th, 2026, the 98th Academy Awards, also known as the Oscars, took place in Hollywood, California. During the awards ceremony, the host, Conan O'Brien, made a joke about Leonardo DiCaprio being the "king of memes" due to all of his meme formats, showing examples on the screen like the Laughing DiCaprio meme and the DiCaprio Toast meme. O'Brien then went on to try to make a "new Leo meme" by panning the camera to Leo with the overlayed caption, "TFW you didn't agree to this." Leo notices the camera is on him and shrugs with a smirk.

The clip went viral that same night on sites like X / Twitter as it started garnering reactions. For example, X user @MarioNawfal reposted the moment with the caption, "Conan just created a new Leo meme in real time at the Oscars," receiving over 2.2 million views, 36,000 likes and 160 replies in three days.

Conan just created a new Leo meme in real time at the Oscars🤣pic.twitter.com/WuCfgR423j

— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) March 16, 2026

Spread

The new Leonardo DiCaprio clip and meme spread online over the following days in mid-March 2026, inspiring variations and memes referencing the moment.

On March 16th, 2026, the official World of Warcraft X account, @Warcraft, posted a recreation of the meme captioned, "When you join a group as Shadow Priest and they ask you to heal," garnering over 2,900 likes in a day.

That day, the secret_nyc Instagram page posted a collection of memes using Leo's shrugging photo that gained over 15,000 likes in two days.

On March 17th, 2026, Redditor Responsible-Twist981 posted a version of the meme to the /r/memes subreddit captioned, "When you're so iconic that every moment of yours is a meme," gaining over 37,000 upvotes in a day.

Later that day, Redditor HowlingBurd19 posted another version of the meme to the /r/memes subreddit captioned, "How it felt watching your parents argue over a problem that a two-second Google search can solve," garnering over 13,000 upvotes in a day.