Meme · brand meme

By Deimos EMK · Published Oct 6, 2026 · Updated Oct 6, 2026 · 4 min read · AI-drafted, source-checked

Via GIPHY (@ACarriganArt)

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See it in action

Video: The Not Laughing Cow Meme Explained!, embedded from its original platform.

What the meme is

The Not Laughing Cow is the name the internet gave to The Laughing Cow cheese mascot after Babybel swapped her iconic laughing face for a big frown. On September 22nd, 2026, the brand announced that for the first time in 100 years, the cow was not laughing, and it changed the packaging on The Laughing Cow-branded cheese to show the red cow with a serious, frowning expression.

The company's website was updated with the message 'After more than 100 years, The Laughing Cow has stopped laughing. We need to talk,' and the website handle was changed to 'The Not Laughing Cow.' Crucially, the brand refused to explain why she was sad, and that silence is exactly what turned a packaging change into a meme.

As a meme, The Not Laughing Cow works as a fill-in-the-blank format. Because nobody knew why the cow stopped laughing, people started inventing their own reasons, treating her sudden emotional shift like a friend who posted a vague sad status and refused to elaborate. Memes place the frowning cow in unfunny situations, depict her as a doom-and-gloom character, and roast the brand for being vague about her emotional distress.

There's also a layer of genuine attachment in the jokes: people grew up with the laughing red cow, so seeing her miserable reads as weirdly personal, like finding out a childhood friend is going through it.

The term also carries the brand's eventual official meaning. At the end of September 2026, Babybel revealed the cow stopped laughing because everyone takes every little thing too seriously, calling these petty online arguments 'wedge issues', a pun on the wedge shape of Laughing Cow cheese. The message is that a wedge is for sharing, not fighting over.

So the phrase now does double duty: it's the name of the sad mascot, and shorthand for the brand's whole 'stop arguing over dumb stuff' campaign, which the internet received with affection and a healthy dose of skepticism, since arguing over dumb stuff is basically the internet's main export. [1][2][3][4][5]

Seen in use

People using “Not Laughing Cow meme” in their own posts, each linked to the post itself. These are examples of use, not sources.

Every quote above passed the same verification gate this site publishes under: real source, real date, copied verbatim. See the editorial policy.

How it spread

The Not Laughing Cow is everywhere because Babybel engineered it as a slow-burn mystery and let the internet do the marketing. The campaign launched with TikTok videos showing the cow sadly looking out a window and swinging on a swingset, followed by a September 25th video riffing on the Netflix documentary trend that pulled over 200,000 views in three days.

The unexplained frown generated real concern and endless speculation, with TikToker @courtneylcook's video about the logo change gaining over 400,000 views in five days and a Dexerto post on X pulling over 42,000 likes and 3,200 reposts in two days.

The stunt then escalated to late-night TV: the mascot appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, where Kimmel and Guillermo Rodriguez bickered until they noticed the cow growing uncomfortable, and Kimmel suggested she stopped laughing because everybody keeps fighting over little things.

The brand kicked off a nationwide challenge asking people to record videos about unnecessary disagreements, acknowledge they aren't worth the divide, and share them with #SpreadTheLaugh to make the cow laugh again. Between the mystery phase, the Kimmel appearance, and the wedge-issues reveal, the meme stayed in the conversation for weeks and landed in weekly meme roundups alongside the biggest formats of the moment.

Variants & examples

Casual and meme-native; referencing the sad cow is currently funny and on-trend, though brand-stunt memes tend to fade fast once the campaign ends.

• “The Not Laughing Cow is literally me every Monday morning.”relatable post on X or TikTok
• “They really made the cheese cow depressed and expected us to just be normal about it.”joking about the rebrand
• “My theory for why she's not laughing: she saw my screen time report.”fill-in-the-blank meme format
• “Not Laughing Cow said y'all argue about throw pillows too much and honestly? Fair.”reacting to the wedge-issues reveal
• “Brands really said 'what if the mascot had depression' and it worked, I'm invested in this cow's healing journey.”commenting on the viral marketing campaign

Frequently asked