“VDM ... vie de merde” meme: meaning, origin and common card

What does the “VDM ... vie de merde” meme mean?

Typing “VDM” under a story is a way of owning a small disaster with a laugh: the missed train, the dropped phone, the message sent to the wrong person. It is not a plea for sympathy, it turns bad luck into a shared joke. On the card it stands for collective self-mockery, the comforting feeling that someone out there had a worse day. French speakers use it in writing and out loud, often as a single word dropped with a sigh.

Where does the “VDM ... vie de merde” meme come from?

The website viedemerde.fr went live in January 2008. It is credited to Maxime Valette, joined about two months later by Guillaume Passaglia. It works like a microblog: a short anecdote of a few sentences, sent by a member or an anonymous visitor, which others can rate and comment on. Stories are filed under headings such as love, money, work, kids, health or uncategorised. In January 2009 the idea was adapted in English as “F My Life”, shortened to FML. The VDM acronym then escaped the site and became an everyday internet interjection.

1. 2008Launch of viedemerde.fr, created by Maxime Valette.
2. 2009English version of the concept called F My Life (FML).

How to use the “VDM ... vie de merde” meme

• After spilling coffee on the keyboard: “VDM, seriously.”
• As a caption on a screenshot of a domestic disaster: “Peak Monday-morning VDM.”
• Replying to a friend whose day went wrong: “That smells like a VDM.”

The “VDM ... vie de merde” card in MyMemeCards

Number	No. 4410
Rarity	Common
Collection	Memes FR pack
Fame	50/100 · #753 of 3498
Recycle value	5 MemeCoins (15 in Shiny)
Suggested by	@tacctaccc

How to get the “VDM ... vie de merde” card

Every pack holds 5 meme cards, the first 3 of them Common; VDM ... vie de merde 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.

The reprint of the “VDM ... vie de merde” card

The “VDM ... vie de merde” card was reprinted as Rare (No. 4,774). A reprint is the same meme printed again, with a number of its own and a higher rarity than its first printing, which was common. Its face reads “Reprinted card · Higher rarity”.

Every printing is dealt in the packs of the Memes FR pack, each at its own rarity: the higher it is, the rarer the card is to pull. Copies of the first printing already pulled stay as they are, and any printing counts toward completing a set.

MyMemeCards reprints a meme when it deserves more than the rarity of its first printing, such as a classic that became iconic after it came out: the reprint gives it a place among the most sought-after cards without taking anything from the players who already had it.

Memes like “VDM ... vie de merde”

More cards of the Memes FR pack

Every card of the Memes FR pack →