Obsessed Fan From Swarm
Contents
About
“Obsessed Fan From Swarm” is a reaction image of actress Dominique Fishback as Dre, the lead character of the Amazon Prime series Swarm. Dre stares straight ahead with a blank, intense look, bare-shouldered, her long black hair pulled half up into a bun. The image is usually posted on Twitter/X with a caption above it, and it's become the go-to picture for anyone who takes their fandom a little too seriously.
Origin
Swarm, created by Donald Glover and Janine Nabers, premiered on March 17th, 2023. It follows Dre, a young woman whose obsession with a pop star named Ni'Jah and her fandom, The Swarm, pushes her toward increasingly violent acts. The frame comes from the first episode, where Dre glares at a beehive on a tree. That scene was also in a teaser trailer released on March 13th, 2023.
The first known caption came on March 21st, 2023, when X user @dojnikaswoo posted the still with "me when I was 27 asking people 'nicki or cardi?' at work back in 2017." The account was later suspended, but the post got about 3 million views. The format came back in June 2025. On June 9th, @navybih posted "me when I was 22 asking people 'Rihanna or Beyoncé?' at work back in 2006," which passed 100,000 likes in two days and set off a wave of copycats.
Meaning
The meme pokes fun at stan culture. The most common version is the "me when I was X asking people 'A or B?' at work back in [year]" template: the poster pictures themselves at the height of some fan war, grilling coworkers about which star they prefer, with Dre's stare standing in for how seriously they took the answer.
It also works as a plain reaction image whenever someone badmouths a favorite artist, or when a question like "who's your favorite artist?" is about to get a very intense reply. The joke is always the same: loyalty that has gone a bit unhinged, just like Dre's.
Examples
Popularity
See also