The 'Not Great, Bob!' meme originates from a tense scene in the AMC drama Mad Men, specifically the season six episode 'The Man with a Plan.' The character Pete Campbell, played by Vincent Kartheiser, is visibly distressed and overwhelmed when he is greeted by the relentlessly cheerful Bob Benson. When Bob asks how he is doing, Pete snaps back with the now-legendary line, capturing a universal sense of exasperation. The meme gained massive popularity on social media as a reaction image for when life, work, or global events are going poorly but someone asks for a status update anyway. It serves as the perfect sarcastic rebuttal to forced optimism in the face of personal or professional chaos.