The 'By The Pope!' meme features a stylized crusader knight reacting with visible shock or horror to an unseen stimulus. It gained significant traction on platforms like Reddit and 4chan, particularly within gaming communities, as a way to respond to 'cursed' content or internet degeneracy. The image is often cropped from various webcomics or fan art, portraying the knight in a state of holy disbelief. Users pair this template with absurd headlines, bizarre fanfiction, or strange social media posts to signal that the content has gone too far for even a holy warrior to ignore. It remains a popular choice for ironic 'righteous indignation' across the web.