The 'pondering the orb' meme, explained

Confused as to why everyone is "pondering the orb" on Twitter?

The phrase "pondering the orb" is currently circulating on the app. Typically accompanied by an image of an elderly wizard staring intensely at a mystical, glowing orb, the meme appears to have emerged back in October when @thatsgoodweb posted it with the caption "pondering my orb." The tweet has since garnered over 23,000 likes.

According to Know Your Meme, the image of the wizard comes from the cover of A Spy in Isengard (Middle-Earth Quest), a fantasy-genre gamebook from Terry K. Amthor. Published in 1988, it's a choose-your-own-adventure epic set in the Lorde of the Rings universe. Don't worry if it doesn't sound familiar to you: It's quite the deep cut.

The meme may have started with the old sage, but the phrase "pondering my orb" or "pondering the orb" has since become a meme in itself that has been applied to any photo featuring a round object. It's a classic Twitter trend that relies on the context of an original meme to truly understand it. Other variations of the meme include photoshopping the original image or photoshopping the wizard and the orb into other scenarios.

Here are a few of our favorite "pondering the orb" Tweets.

1. Target edition

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2. Never ponder too close to the orb

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3. That's so deep

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4. Cracking open a new orb to ponder > cracking open a cold one with the boys

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5. Red flag

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6. Need

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7. This

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8. Apparently, the feminine urge to ponder orbs is very strong

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9. Someone had to say it

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