“Pas piqué des hannetons” meme: meaning, origin and common card

What does the “Pas piqué des hannetons” meme mean?

French Wiktionary glosses it as having merit, or being of good quality. In practice it lands on anything over the top, a day, a bill, a blunder, and the tone does the rest: admiring for a feat, mocking for a disaster. Much of the comedy sits in the length and the dustiness of the wording, since reaching for it today is a way of sounding like somebody’s grandfather, which is exactly the point. The participle agrees with whatever it describes.

Where does the “Pas piqué des hannetons” meme come from?

The wording belongs to an older family of images. Le Guichet du Savoir, the reference service of Lyon’s municipal library, quotes lexicographer Georges Planelles: “piqué des vers”, said of timber free of worms, is seventeenth-century; “hannetonnée” turns up in the nineteenth; an 1832 song, “Les Amours de Mahieu”, already attests the turn of phrase, and the modern sense settles in the early twentieth century. The same answer cites Daniel Lacotte on the old belief that insect bites drove people mad, which gives French “Quel ver le pique ?” as early as the fifteenth century. Wiktionary records the twin form “ne pas être piqué des vers” and an 1871 literary use by Léon Beauvallet. Online, Amixem reached for it on X in March and April 2016 and discussed it in his 15 April 2016 Miitomo video; fan compilations followed, one in 2018.

1. 17th century“piqué des vers” describes timber free of worms, per Georges Planelles
2. 1832the wording is attested in the song “Les Amours de Mahieu”
3. 1871Léon Beauvallet uses it in a text recorded by Wiktionary
4. early 20th centurythe modern sense, having merit, settles
5. March and April 2016Amixem uses the phrase on X
6. 15 April 2016Amixem discusses it in his Miitomo video
7. 22 June 2018a fan channel re-uploads the clip

How to use the “Pas piqué des hannetons” meme

• Tack it onto an unlikely story to underline the scale of it.
• Turn it into a complaint about a bill or an excuse that went too far.
• Imitate it syllable by syllable, the way the Amixem clip does.

The “Pas piqué des hannetons” card in MyMemeCards

Number	No. 834
Rarity	Common
Collection	Memes FR pack
Fame	45/100 · #742 of 869
Recycle value	5 MemeCoins (15 in Shiny)
Suggested by	@gunther

How to get the “Pas piqué des hannetons” card

Every pack holds 5 meme cards, the first 3 of them Common; Pas piqué des hannetons comes out of the Memes FR pack as a common card. The pack odds say what each rarity weighs.

Your first pack is free and needs no account. After that a new free pack lands every 10 minutes, up to 3 waiting for you. You can also buy the card with MemeCoins on the market, bid for it at auction, or trade it — and a double recycles into 5 MemeCoins.

Memes like “Pas piqué des hannetons”

Désolée, je passe du coca lightCommon · 2016On ne contracte pas !Rare · 2024Bonjour petite abeilleCommon · 2024Pris en flagment de delireCommon · 2023bien boitCommon · 2025Le 357Common · 2024Je vous emmerde et je rentre à ma maisonCommon · 1997Wow y'en a des motsCommon · 2022

More cards of the Memes FR pack

Non mais allô, quoiMythicLes frères BogdanoffMythicC'est pas fauxMythicCasse-toi alors, pauv' conMythicOmar m'a tuerMythicPain au chocolat — Full ArtFull ArtAmenoMythic · 1996La question elle est vite répondueMythic

Every card of the Memes FR pack →