The 'Dear David' meme originates from the 2023 supernatural horror film based on Adam Ellis’s legendary 2017 Twitter thread. The story follows a cartoonist haunted by the ghost of a child with a misshapen head, a premise that captivated millions of social media users years before its cinematic debut. In meme culture, the movie's imagery is frequently used to represent feelings of being watched, unexpected jump scares, or the internet's divisive reaction to the film's adaptation. Users often leverage the eerie visuals of David himself to poke fun at creepy situations or to express the anxiety of noticing something unsettling in the background of a photo.