The best-known Rock Paper Scissors memes are the Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson pun, Sheldon Cooper's Rock Paper Scissors Lizard Spock speech, the absurd 101-gesture RPS-101 chart, and the endless "how does paper beat rock?" argument. Most RPS memes are variations on those few formats, and knowing where each came from makes them funnier.
I have linked to the original sources rather than copying images here. Meme images belong to their creators, and the best place to browse them is the Know Your Meme Rock-Paper-Scissors entry and its galleries.
1. The Rock, The Paper, The Scissors
Three photos of Dwayne Johnson labelled "The Rock", "The Paper" and "The Scissors". It was circulating on Reddit in early 2018, and Johnson then recreated it himself during the press tour for Rampage. It is the single most famous RPS meme, and we gave it its own article: the Dwayne Johnson rock paper scissors meme.
Why it works: the pun needs no setup, and the man himself played along.
2. "Scissors cuts paper, paper covers rock..."
In The Big Bang Theory episode "The Lizard-Spock Expansion" (2008), Sheldon Cooper rattles off the full rules of Rock Paper Scissors Lizard Spock at speed. The game was actually invented earlier by Sam Kass and Karen Bryla, but the scene made it a meme: people quote the ten-rule chant, post the circular diagram, and flash the Vulcan salute to mean "Spock". A Kickstarter for "Geek Dice" based on the game even reached its funding goal in 2013.
If you want the actual rules, see Rock Paper Scissors Lizard Spock. If you want to win it, see our Lizard Spock strategy guide.
3. RPS-101: the chart that ate the game
Artist David C. Lovelace built a series of bigger and bigger variants, from RPS-11 and RPS-15 up to RPS-101, a version with 101 gestures and 5,050 possible outcomes, including dragons, aliens, sponges and chainsaws. He published it at umop.com. Screenshots of the enormous outcome web get shared constantly, usually captioned with some variant of "I just wanted to decide who does the dishes". Our variations page covers the playable versions.
4. "How does paper beat rock?"
This is less one meme than an eternal genre. The joke formats are familiar: a rock that simply tears through the paper, a courtroom where paper is on trial for "covering" as a crime, or the observation that a sheet of paper wrapped round a rock does nothing to the rock. The answer, for the record, is that paper beating rock is a convention, not physics. The game only needs each shape to beat one and lose to one. Our rules page explains why the cycle has to be balanced, and our jokes page collects the better puns.
5. The kid who always throws rock
Another perennial: the friend, sibling or child who throws rock every single time and still somehow wins. There is a grain of truth behind it. In our own data at wrpsa.com (3,020 throws from 943 players, 2026-07-29 to 2026-09-27, mostly against the computer), rock was the most common throw at 36.2% overall and 38.1% on the first throw. It is a small, recent sample, but the meme is not wrong about rock being the favourite. The psychology page explains why.
6. "Everybody expects you to choose rock"
In 2005 a Japanese company president, Takashi Hashiyama, could not decide between Christie's and Sotheby's to sell his art collection, so he made them play Rock Paper Scissors. Christie's took advice from an employee's 11-year-old twin daughters, who said to throw scissors because everyone expects rock. Sotheby's threw paper. Christie's won. The story resurfaces online every few years as the ultimate "kids know best" meme. More in biggest deals decided by Rock Paper Scissors.
Make your own
The best RPS memes all do the same thing: take a game everyone already knows and change one piece of it, a label, a rule, or the stakes. You do not need permission to riff on the game, but do credit or link the original image rather than reposting someone else's work as your own.
And if you would rather settle an argument than meme about it, you can play a round online.
FAQ
What is the most famous rock paper scissors meme?
Almost certainly the Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson pun, because Johnson recreated it himself.
Who invented Rock Paper Scissors Lizard Spock?
Sam Kass, with Karen Bryla. The Big Bang Theory made it famous in 2008.
Where can I find RPS meme images?
Know Your Meme keeps galleries under its Rock-Paper-Scissors entry, and Reddit communities regularly share new ones. Link to them rather than re-uploading.