The Carmen Winstead meme originates from a popular creepypasta and chain letter that circulated the internet in the mid-2000s. The story tells of a young girl named Carmen who was pushed into an open sewer manhole by a group of bullies as a prank, only to die and return as a vengeful spirit. The meme saw a massive resurgence on platforms like TikTok, where users paired the dramatic narration of the story—specifically the line 'They pushed her'—with comedic or surreal imagery. It is primarily used to mock the overly dramatic tone of early internet horror stories or as a jump-scare setup, blending nostalgia for classic web horror with modern internet humor.