There are probably few lines of poetry more instantly recognizable than “Roses are red, violets are blue.” We see or hear it, and at this point, our brains already know to expect what’s coming: two more short lines, ending in something like “new” or “true.” It’s been used for love poems, Valentine’s Day cards, dirty jokes, and pretty much every other occasion that calls for a few lines that rhyme.
But, as we tend to do on the internet, some folks over on r/rosesarered have taken this well-worn formula and totally run with it. And the results are often nothing you could have seen coming. They can be silly, unexpected, dark, or downright chaotic—but they all show just how much can be done with a format that seems deceptively simple. So, whether you came here for a little “internet poetry” or simply enjoy seeing a familiar phrase turned on its head, here are some of the most memorable examples we found.
#1 Roses Are Red, The European Healthcare Is Relatively Fab!
Image source: AmaranthWalker
#2 Roses Are Red, I’m Not Gonna Spoil It…
Image source: TheParking1
#3 Roses Are Red, This Turns Me Tense
Image source: UnhollyGod
If “Roses are red” seems as old as time itself, that’s because it practically is. The familiar rhyme is generally traced back to an epic poem, The Faerie Queene, written in 1590 by Edmund Spenser. In this allegorical work in praise of Elizabeth I, a man describes the sight of a fairy woman bathing: “She bath’d with roses red, and violets blew,/ And all the sweetest flowres, that in the forrest grew.”
Some 200 years later, in 1784, the concept resurfaced, this time in a nursery rhyme book, Joseph Johnson’s Gammer Gurton’s Garland. In it, a poem titled “The Valentine” read: “The rose is red, the violet’s blue,/ The honey’s sweet, and so are you.”
#4 Roses Are Red, Senior Citizen Logician
Image source: shortwa113t
#5 Roses Are Red, Finally I Can Lay
Image source: UnhollyGod
#6 Roses Are Red, I Do Snowdrift
Image source: [deleted]
“Everything between those two dates, and everything since,” Marcel de Romph writes, “is people borrowing it.” And people sure didn’t hold back. Over the centuries, the familiar formula has been tweaked, adapted, parodied, and occasionally turned into something that barely resembles a love poem at all.
#7 Roses Are Red, There Is No Hate
Image source: [deleted]
#8 Roses Are Red, They Took A Hit
Image source: PogOgres
#9 Roses Are Red, Rage Was Beckoned
Image source: Annasttaa
The acclaimed writer Victor Hugo included a version of the verse, either knowingly or unknowingly, in his now-iconic 1862 work, Les Misérables. Translated from French, Fantine sings: “We will buy very pretty things/ A-walking through the faubourgs./ Violets are blue, roses are red./ Violets are blue,/ I love my loves.”
As de Romph neatly puts it, “Hugo got the colors botanically right and lost the rhyme. English kept the rhyme and changed the flowers. You cannot really have both.”
#10 Roses Are Red, Walking Pink Pingo
Image source: supperhey
#11 Roses Are Red, You’d Likely Scoff,
Image source: [deleted]
#12 Roses Are Red, Why You Have To Be So Bad Asks Zangief,
Image source: [deleted]
But the rhyme didn’t stay confined to literature, either. Country singer Roger Miller parodied it in his 1964 hit “Dang Me,” while the Marx Brothers put their own spin on the format in Horse Feathers. Other versions have popped up across popular culture, including Kurt Vonnegut’s 1973 novel Breakfast of Champions, Bob Dylan’s 1989 song “Where Teardrops Fall,” and the 1991 comedy What About Bob?
#13 Roses Are Red, I’m Your Fool
Image source: supperhey
#14 Roses Are Red, I Had My Hair Silked
Image source: -Hussain
#15 Roses Are Red, The Cycle Never Ends
Image source: RLCraft_questions
Over time, countless variations and parodies appeared in songs, films, books, jokes, and, eventually, the internet. By then, “Roses are red, violets are blue” had become less a poem with a fixed form and more a template waiting to be filled in. And perhaps that’s part of the reason it’s lasted so long: once everyone knows how the rhyme begins, there’s plenty of fun to be had with where it goes next.
#16 Roses Are Red. You’re Straight? Kinda Doubt It
Image source: DarkMagickan
#17 Roses Are Red, You Can Cook Garlic Chives,
Image source: [deleted]
#18 Roses Are Red, Sensing This Great Tension
Image source: Technical-Rooster-95
As Jacob Uitti writes for American Songwriter, “In more recent years, the rhyme has come to be known almost at birth, it’s in our DNA. When something romantic happens, it’s Roses are red, violets are blue. It’s as much a punchline setup as it is an admission of affection now.”
And that neatly brings us to the subreddit whose posts we’re featuring today: r/rosesarered. Because here, “Roses are red” isn’t just a well-picked name. As the rules clearly state: “It’s the soul of the sub.”
#19 Roses Are Red, I’m Not Understanding Properly
Image source: Aquario_es
#20 Roses Are Red, Are We Doing This Right?
Image source: [deleted]
#21 Roses Are Red, Love Your Ads
Image source: Low-Birthday-9938
Accordingly, the sub’s rules state that “Titles must start with ‘Roses are red,’” and posts must follow one of three acceptable rhyme formats. It’s a fittingly formal set of rules for a format that, as we’ve seen, has become less a fixed poem than a template waiting to be filled in. One of the sub’s formats is particularly telling: “Setup in title, punchline in the post.” Basically, they say it should be like a two-line poem: the title provides the setup, while the image—usually a screenshot or picture that contains text—provides the punchline.
#22 Roses Are Red, I Won A Prize
Image source: JustALittleBunny12
#23 Roses Are Red, So Is My Wine
Image source: DarkMagickan
#24 Roses Are Red, Making Mistakes Is Only Human
Image source: EstacadoEcho
Much like the rhyme itself, variations of the formula seem to have had quite a few different lives online. Although r/rosesarered was created in October 2009, Know Your Meme traces examples back to at least 2006, when someone asked Yahoo Answers users for funny “Roses are red, violets are blue” poems. In 2012, an r/AskReddit user posed a similar question, asking people to share their best “Roses are red” poems. Some of these were incorporated into Valentine’s Day e-cards on Tumblr.
#25 Roses Are Red, Sometimes I Like To Sing,
Image source: Its_Neither5_Nor4
#26 Roses Are Red, I Know You Heard It
Image source: Jolly-Cap9593
#27 Roses Are Red, Anyone Surprised By This Is Insane…
Image source: IcyManipulator69
The particular format we see on r/rosesarered, though—where a “Roses are red” setup is followed by “a screengrab of a headline or a YouTube video title that completes the rhyme and serves as the punchline”—was described by The Daily Dot in 2016 as “a more recent mutation,” one that could only be possible “in the contemporary garbage heap of online.”
Now, with that centuries-old setup firmly established, let’s see what Reddit did with the punchline.
#28 Roses Are Red, A Lot Of Money Was Spent
Image source: Super_Awesome_H
#29 Roses Are Red This Is Wild
Image source: mwale2007
#30 Roses Are Red, Let This Information Sink
Image source: AdAdministrative3720
#31 Roses Are Red, 6.022(10^23) = Mole
Image source: yourtwixbar
#32 Roses Are Red, Unfortunately I Use Bing
Image source: Shad3_7
#33 Roses Are Red, I Put Books On A Shelf,
Image source: StarPrime323
#34 Roses Are Red, This Might Trigger An Upstand
Image source: wescubeXD
#35 Roses Are Red, A Genius B-Line
Image source: Fat_Gravy3000
#36 Roses Are Red, I Have A Solution
Image source: Wooden-Quail3493
#37 Roses Are Red, I Have Hair,
Image source: StarPrime323
#38 Roses Are Red, Sass To The Brim
Image source: hotmailist
#39 Roses Are Red, I Just Ate Soup
Image source: [deleted]
#40 Roses Are Red, I Cannot Tell A Lie
Image source: ColossalLifeline
#41 Roses Are Red And Poppies Are Also Red…
Image source: SolarNova2199
#42 Roses Are Red, Im Not Gonna Quit
Image source: UnhollyGod
#43 Roses Are Red, For When Cthulu Lurches,
Image source: [deleted]
#44 Roses Are Red, Literally Everyone,
Image source: [deleted]
#45 Roses Are Red, I’m Dancing In The Rain,
Image source: StarPrime323
#46 Finding Oneself
Image source: ShadowStar_1
#47 Roses Are Red, My Exercises Are Aerobic,
Image source: StarPrime323
#48 Roses Are Red, Theyre Turning The Frogs Gay,
Image source: randostar275
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