Marines Eating Crayons – The Joke That Won't Die - The U.S. military inter-service rivalry has resulted in some notable stereotypes and tropes over the years, but in the era of social media, one in particular has stood out like no other. It is the "crayon-eating Marine," which plays off the stereotype of Marines being unintelligent.

Never being the service to back down, the United States Marine Corps even attempted to lean into the joke with a self-deprecating video produced in 2018 for National Crayon Day.

However, the lingering questions are how this trope began and why. The best answer is that it is a fairly recent invention that largely took on a life of its own only in the past decade or so.

"When I got out in 2010, it was definitely not a thing," Maximilian Uriarte, an author, artist and filmmaker who writes the popular Terminal Lance comic strip, told Task & Purpose in January 2023. "Obviously there is a general joke that Marines are dumb, but there was no mention of crayons when I was active duty."

Uriarte added that around 2015 or 2016, on the United States Marine Crops Facebook page, there was a joke that some U.S. Army soldier gave an MRE (Meal, Ready-to-Eat) to a Marine that consisted of just crayons. As the story goes, the Marine ate them and then asked for jalapeño cheese sauce.

The rest is history. The post went viral, and like some many odd tropes and memes on social media, it quickly took on a life of its own.

Marines Eating Crayons? 

Part of the reason is that it played into existing stereotypes as noted by Alex Hollings back in 2021. He described the basic stereotypes that "Marines are stupid, Soldiers are fat, Airmen are lazy, and the Navy is soft. There are plenty of variations on each theme (some less safe for work than others). Of course, none of these insults are accurate in a branch-wide sense, but we all know that picking on your friends is less about accuracy and more about landing the joke."

Hollings further recounts that at an event in the late 2010s, he and a fellow Marine were served crayons as a joke and that he ate one to cheers from the crowd while eating crayons has since become a humorous tradition for Marines at graduations and Marine Corps balls.

"At first it was legitimately funny, but I think the military community tends to run a joke into the ground," Uriarte further suggested. That fact hasn't stopped a few retired Marines from introducing actual edible crayons, including the CREs – as in Crayons, Ready-to-Eat.

Hence the crayon-eating Marine joke is much like the memes of the "relieved" Denzel Washington and the cheering baby that are too present on X – the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. Even if we want it to go away, someone else will discover it anew in time for National Crayon Day on March 31.

Author Experience and Expertise: Peter Suciu

Peter Suciu is a Michigan-based writer. He has contributed to more than four dozen magazines, newspapers, and websites with over 3,200 published pieces over a twenty-year career in journalism. He regularly writes about military hardware, firearms history, cybersecurity, politics, and international affairs. Peter is also a Contributing Writer for Forbes and Clearance Jobs. You can follow him on Twitter: @PeterSuciu. You can email the author: [email protected]. 

Image Credit: U.S. Marines Flickr.