The Buff Tom meme features an edited, extremely muscular version of Tom the cat from the classic Tom and Jerry series. While Tom is usually depicted as a bumbling antagonist who often loses to Jerry, this 'swole' rendition portrays him as a powerful, intimidating, and smug figure. The image gained massive popularity on platforms like Reddit and Twitter as a way to represent a feeling of unearned confidence or the exaggerated physical sensation of completing a mundane task. It serves as a hilarious visual metaphor for peak performance, whether the user is joking about their gym progress or simply feeling superior after a minor accomplishment.