The American Airlines Stroller Incident meme stems from a viral 2017 video where a flight attendant aggressively confiscated a stroller from a mother on a flight from San Francisco to Dallas. The footage became a massive internet sensation, particularly the moment a male passenger intervened, leading the flight attendant to challenge him by shouting 'Hit me!' multiple times. While the incident was a serious PR nightmare for the airline, the internet quickly adapted the imagery to satirize corporate overreach, customer service frustrations, and the general stress of modern air travel. It is frequently used to represent situations where authority figures react disproportionately to minor issues or when a bystander stands up against a perceived injustice.