The expanding brain format, often called Galaxy Brain, became a viral meme in 2017 as creators ranked ideas across four panels, with each panel showing a brighter, more cosmic brain. The joke was the inversion: the supposedly smartest option was usually the most ridiculous. It spread through Reddit, Twitter and later TikTok, because the template is easy to remake for any topic, from gaming and food to school and work. Its lasting appeal is that structure, which lets creators turn a normal ranking into a mock-serious escalation.