This article was originally published on MvpMode
Cheerleaders were originally meant to cheer to motivate sports teams, but nowadays, they have people cheering for them in national and international competitions. If you’ve watched Cheer on Netflix, you probably know cheerleaders today are admired, praised, and let’s be honest, envied. But they’re not always perfect. The hilarious photos below show moments when cheerleaders weren’t camera-ready, but were definitely ready to become memes. Get ready for some serious cheer!
When You Had One Job, and You Still Failed
Being a regular high school student is difficult enough. Being a high school student and a cheerleader? Wow. We get it, it’s difficult to balance classes, homework, and cheer practice, but this is such a typical case of “you had one job. Only one job. And you still failed.” Seriously, though, “Got ‘spirt’?” “Spirit” is not even a difficult word to spell. We don’t have “spirt,” but we do have spell check.
The worst thing about this image is that it doesn’t really help with the hurtful stereotype that cheerleaders are all beauty and no brains. Anyway, it’s just a misspelled word, and as they say – “Pobody’s nerfect.”
When Life Begins to Slowly Fall Apart
Remember that scene from The Simpsons Movie, where Bart ends up humiliated in public and says, “This is the worst day of my life,” and Homer tries to console him but ultimately makes things worse by replying, “The worst day of your life so far”? We think about that quote a lot. Sometimes it really feels like things keep getting worse and worse, until the moment you can’t do anything about it anymore.
This is what life looks like when it finally stops falling apart slowly, and it begins to fall apart quickly. We know it’s coming, we’re just waiting for it. Waiting for that last straw.
When You Have the Perfect Comeback for an Argument, and Your Moment Arrives
We can think of very few situations that are more frustrating than being the loser in an argument, and only later thinking of something to say that would have turned everything around. Likewise, there are few things more satisfying in life than knowing exactly what to say when you need to say it. This perfectly timed picture is the exact representation of what it feels like when you nail it during an argument.
You knew this moment was coming. You predicted how the argument was gonna start, and you saw the way it was gonna go. The other person said something that was meant to shut you up, but you were prepared. Your moment is now.×
And the Wingwoman of the Year Award Goes to…
We always hear people talking about their wingmen, but we feel like they should be talking about the wingwomen, too. Can we stop for a second and honor all of the awesome wingwomen out there? We want to shower them with the love and appreciation they deserve. Check out this lady, for instance, who looks like she’s ready to take home the Wingwoman of the Year award. That’s what true friendship looks like.
All jokes aside, though, we have to say – isn’t it amazing how strong cheerleaders are? That control! That balance! Not to mention the fact that the cheerleader on the bottom is doing it with a smile on her face. It’s downright impressive!
When You’re a Cheerleader in Australia
Crikey, so this is what it’s like to be a cheerleader in Australia? Their pyramids must be insane! Seriously though, what a great action shot. Kudos to the person who captured the exact moment when this cheerleader was perfectly upside down. And kudos to the cheerleader as well, because this stunt doesn’t look easy, and we’re sure it took many hours of practice until she mastered every aspect of this movement.
Meanwhile, we can barely do a decent somersault, and the only regular exercise we do is walking from our desk to the vending machine when we’re out of coffee and Doritos.
What Has Been Seen Cannot Be Unseen
Most of us know the “What has been seen cannot be unseen” meme in the form of a wide-eyed black cat with its ears folded back, although there are many other versions of it, featuring other funny-looking cats. Believe us, we love those kitties, we think they’re awesome, but wouldn’t this image also be perfect for that meme? Those two cheerleaders on the bottom could replace those cats anytime.
The curious thing is that their facial expressions are so different from one another, but in the end, they both seem like they have been scarred for life. Cheerleading is not easy, y’all.
That Moment When You Realize It Wasn’t a Fart
There are so many great things about this image, we didn’t even know where to start. We were gonna go for the male cheerleader on the bottom, but it seemed a little too obvious. Then we moved on to the cheerleader on the right, who looks like she can hardly believe she’s a real cheerleader. But we had to say something about the cheerleader on top, because we love her facial expression.
She’s making the perfect face for a “That moment when you realize” meme, because it does seem like something very important with serious implications just dawned on her, and she – and possibly the people around her – will have to deal with the consequences.
Improvise. Adapt. Overcome
Women know how annoying it is that our clothes often don’t come with real pockets. Sometimes our pants don’t have pockets at all. Sometimes the designers draw the pockets but they don’t actually make them (why are fake pockets even a thing?). Sometimes they make them, but they’re so small, you can hardly fit your keys in there. Is this all a conspiracy so we’ll be forced to buy handbags? We think so.
Anyways, cheerleaders definitely don’t have pockets in their uniforms, but they’re still people, and they need to carry their stuff with them. This cheerleader in particular had to improvise, adapt, and overcome, and she certainly did it well.
And That, Kids, Is How I Met Your Mother
Do you sometimes look at photos online and start imagining what’s the story behind them? That’s a good creativity exercise, and if you have enough spare time on your hands, you can end up with little screenplays in your head, the greatest works of fiction no one will ever read or watch. We looked at this photo and it really awakened our inner Nicholas Sparks (author of Dear John and The Notebook, among many other bestselling books).
This looks like the beginning of a beautiful love story, the quarterback and the cheerleader, and we can hardly wait to sell the rights to this book so it can be turned into a movie.
One Does Not Simply Wear White After Labor Day
They say that some rules are meant to be followed and some rules are meant to be broken, and choosing what to do when is what makes you, you. Well, breaking the wrong fashion rules apparently makes you internet-famous, and not for a good reason. Ever heard of a little rule called “do not wear white after labor day”? Maybe you thought this was an obsolete piece of advice, but we have a newfound respect for it.
It’s not like this cheerleader chose to wear white shorts – they’re just part of her uniform – but she broke a fashion rule and now she’s paying the price. One does not simply wear white after labor day. We’re sure that’s the reasoning behind this unfortunate photo!
When You Have Cheer Practice at 8 but You Have to Haunt an Abandoned House at 9
If you know anything about cheerleading at all, you’re probably aware of the fact that the activity is quite dangerous. In fact, several studies have found that cheerleaders suffer more concussions than athletes from contact sports such as hockey and lacrosse, which are notoriously tough. This cheerleader apparently got hurt doing a stunt and she’s just powering through. What a champ! We hope she got medical attention as soon as she finished the routine.
This cheerleader does look like she’s got “haunting an abandoned house” scheduled right after finishing up with this pep rally, though.
That Moment When You See Something You Want on Sale
They say money can’t buy happiness, but it sure makes misery easier to live with. There are some things that normal people do that rich people never have to worry about. For instance, waiting for stuff to go on sale. You probably know the feeling. Falling in love with something you can’t really afford, so you keep your eyes on it, watching, waiting patiently, hoping it doesn’t get sold out.
And then your patience is rewarded, and your moment finally arrives. The item is on sale. Stop everything! Just stop! I need to buy this whatever-whatever!
When You’ve Been Dating for a While and You Can Finally Reveal Your True Colors
Dating is not easy. Even nowadays, with so many apps allowing us to connect with new people in the area, it can be tricky to find someone you want to have as a partner. It takes a while to get there, too. In the beginning, in the stage of attraction, both of you are probably nervous and trying to make a good impression, so you don’t really let your hair down.
This perfectly timed cheerleader photo reminds us of that stage when you’ve been dating for a while and you can finally reveal your true colors. It might scare your date, but if they don’t run, they’re probably a keeper.
When You Lied on Your Resume but Now You Have to Do the Job
Apparently, because resumes aren’t legal documents, it isn’t technically illegal to lie on them, but still, doing so is a really bad idea. A lot of folks do it anyways, though – it’s estimated that 40% of people lie on their CV. They’ll do things like use a fake address, inflate their titles, or exaggerate numbers – but lying about your technical abilities is the worst thing you could do. “Sure, I am proficient in Excel. I’m extra proficient at it.”
The problem, of course, is when they get hired and actually have to do the job in front of everyone. This image makes us think that maybe this person didn’t have any previous cheerleading experience after all.
Seeing Your Sibling Get Yelled at for Something You Did
There’s nothing like sibling love, right? If anyone says anything bad about your sibling, you’ll defend their honor until the end, not only because you love them, but because no one but you is allowed to mess with them. Sounds familiar? We know plenty of siblings who grew up like that. This photo right here is hilarious. We love the facial expressions on those two cheerleaders, firstly because they look like they’re fun people, and also because this is great meme material.
Is this or is this not the face a child makes when they see their sibling getting yelled for something they did? If you’ve never done this before, chances are, you’ve had it done to you.
When You’re About to Sneeze but You’ve Got to Concentrate to Make It Happen
There’s a lot going on in this image, and we just want to start by saying that we respect cheerleaders so much. We can’t get over how strong they are – the women and the men – and the things they can do with their bodies blow us away every time. We love their funny photos too. There’s a lot we could say about this picture, especially because of what that guy is looking at. But his facial expression is what really gets us, here.
This guy is making that face when people can feel a sneeze coming, but they’re about to lose it, and they have to concentrate really hard to make it happen. You can do it, dude. Achoo!
Leaving Work on Friday Like
We’ve all heard the phrase, “Do what you love, and you’ll never work a day in your life,” and while it certainly sounds inspiring, the truth is that this is not a reality for most of us. We’ve got bills to pay, after all, and we don’t see any job openings where we could just pet cats all day. So people have to work in whatever gets them through the monthly bills, possibly hating the office and their coworkers, and basically living for the weekend.
This is what those people look like when they leave the office at 5pm on a Friday, especially if they notice their boss was just about to come over and ask them about that document they wanted them to prepare.
When Your Life Is Falling Apart but You’re Trying to Stay Positive
This perfectly timed picture made us laugh out loud, because of the cheerleader in the center of the pyramid, forcing a smile when it looks like the rest of the pyramid is about to come crashing down. That’s us whenever we feel like our life is falling apart (which is quite often), but we’re still trying to stay positive. This is it. We never thought we would be able to relate to a cheerleader this much, but here we are.
Trying to stay positive and hoping for the best is all that we can do sometimes. Everything is going wrong, but we’re still smiling wide. Just keep swimming, just keep swimming.
When You’re Having a Bad Day, Remember That It Could Always Be Worse
Cheerleaders are beautiful, athletic, lively, and high-spirited – it seems like they have everything going for them, but even the most successful cheerleaders have their off days. This woman, for instance, was probably so happy, living her dream of being a cheerleader for the New Orleans Pelicans, when she was hit over the head with a basketball that was flying so fast, it knocked her off her feet. Ouch, that’s gotta hurt!
Also, is that… Will Ferrell? In this case, this was probably shot for a movie, but still. Can’t be fun to get hit on the head with a basketball, even if it’s by one of our favorite comedians.
When Your Two Personalities Have to Coexist in Peace
This looks so dangerous, and we hope the cheerleader on the right got medical attention after this photo was taken. Cheerleading is beautiful, but it can be super scary sometimes. This image is funny though, because it looks like our two personalities coexisting in peace. One is together, balanced, well adjusted, motivated, and gets stuff done. That personality is a doer. The other one? Well, the other is not very well-adjusted, no.
This is also exactly what we look like on a Monday, versus what we look like on a Friday, after an entire week of work. We need to start implementing a 4-day week with a 3-day weekend, y’all.
Managers Be Like
Shoutout to all the good managers out there, because there aren’t a lot of you – at least that’s the impression we get when we see the number of memes making fun of managers. This perfectly timed photo of a group of cheerleaders working on a stunt could easily be turned into one of those, because it looks like a bunch of managers telling an employee how to do their job, when they have no clue how to do that job.
We know that in the context of this stunt everyone is probably working together to make it happen, but that’s not what usually happens in a workplace. It often feels like the workers do everything, and the managers are shouting nonsense orders just because they can.
When You Leave Things for Tomorrow and Tomorrow Sneaks up on You
Some people are in a constant struggle between their present self and their tomorrow self. Their present self wants to binge-watch Bridgerton on Netflix, so what the heck, they’ll do that, and that important work presentation thing can wait until tomorrow morning. But then, out of nowhere, suddenly, against all odds, completely unexpectedly, tomorrow arrives! Well well well, goodness gracious, who could have predicted that? We are absolutely stunned.
That sly tomorrow, it always finds a way to sneak up on you. Well, tomorrow is now today, but today we started watching Modern Family again and that show has 11 seasons, so…
When You’re Not Sure What You’re Supposed to Do, so You Wing It
Why is it so embarrassing to ask people to repeat what they’ve just said when you don’t understand them? It doesn’t make sense if you think about it logically, but it still happens. This perfectly timed photo is like when our boss has already explained something to us three times and we’re embarrassed to admit we still don’t get it, so we just sort of wing it and hope for the best.
Sure, we could ask them again, but we don’t want them to think we’re stupid, so we’re gonna guess our way through it and possibly make things worse. Yeah, we hear it, that’s not very smart.
When You’re in the Ocean and You Feel Something Touch Your Leg
Did you know that there’s a name for the intense fear of deep bodies of water such as pools, lakes, seas, and oceans? That’s called thalassophobia, from the Greek words for fear (phobos) and sea (thalassa). We don’t know how common this phobia is, but we do know that a lot of people deeply dislike it when they’re inside any type of water and they suddenly feel something touch their leg.
This perfectly timed cheerleading photo is the perfect representation of what we look like when we feel something touching our leg in the water. “Was it a fish? Ew, was it a fish??”
When You Finally Become an Adult and Now You Have to Start Adulting
Remember when you were a kid, and all you wanted in life was to grow up fast and be an adult? And then you became an adult, and quickly realized that it was a trap, and that you had to work and pay taxes, and that everything costs money, and that you’re not entitled to take afternoon naps anymore? This is life now, you are an adult and you have to start adulting.
Those two cheerleaders on the bottom right represent young adults who just realized they have adult responsibilities now, and that even though they were expecting them, they weren’t really prepared for them.
Don’t Be a Male Cheerleader, They Said
Cheerleading is largely seen as a girly activity, and male cheerleaders often face a lot of prejudice from people who should just keep their opinion to themselves. “Don’t be a male cheerleader,” they say. “People will think you’re not straight,” they say. “You’ll never be able to touch a woman as long as you’re wearing that uniform,” they say. Well, this image proves that those opinionated people were all wrong, doesn’t it?
All jokes aside, we know that cheerleading is a serious activity and that every member of a squad should be professional and trust each other. Go team!
When You’re on a Diet but the Universe Is Testing You
People who have been on and off diets know the feeling. It’s Monday morning, and you start your diet confident that this time it’s gonna be different. You can feel it. You will get through this. You will succeed. You will thrive. You survive Monday. And Tuesday. Then on Wednesday, your roommate walks in with a giant loaf of freshly baked bread, and kindly asks you if you want some.
Oh, how you have missed carbs! Have carbs missed you? Probably not, but oh, how you have missed them. And you start wondering why you’re even doing this to yourself.
When You Have No Idea What You’re Doing, but You’re Kinda Killing It
Social media has made it really hard for people nowadays, because it seems like everyone is living their best life and they are fulfilled in their jobs and happy in their relationships, but one of the major secrets of adulthood, that few people are willing to admit, is that no one knows what they’re doing – it’s just that some people happen to be killing it regardless. We were inspired by this funny picture.
We have no clue what’s going on in this image, and chances are, if you ask this male cheerleader, he also wouldn’t be able to explain it. He’s still killing it, though.
When Things Are Going Well and Then Life Kicks You in the Face
Most days we’re like, “birth is a curse and existence is a prison” (that’s a quote from the NBC comedy series The Good Place, in case you aren’t familiar with it), but every now and then, we’re like, yeah, we can “embrace the pandemonium, find happiness in the unique insanity of being here, now” (that’s also a quote from The Good Place). The thing is, whenever we start to get too optimistic, something happens.
It’s like this perfectly timed picture. It seems like things are going well, and everything is going to work out fine for once, and then life does its thing and kicks us in the face.
That Moment When You Start to Question Your Life Decisions
Life gets busy, and most of the days, we can’t really think about the things that we’re doing. We go through the hours rushing from one priority to the next, and we often reach the end of the day feeling like we didn’t do enough, even though we barely had time to stop and take a deep breath. That’s not healthy, but sometimes, we’re afraid of the alternative. This cheerleader apparently understands us.
The face she’s making is us whenever we stop and think about how we ended up where we are now. We start to question all of our life decisions, and oh boy, that’s not fun.