The 'Professional Retard' meme is a derivative of the 'SpongeBob's Waiter' scene from the episode 'Squilliam Returns.' The original scene shows SpongeBob as a high-class waiter, but the meme version features a photoshopped name tag to mock extreme levels of incompetence or foolish mistakes. It gained massive popularity on platforms like Reddit and 4chan as a self-deprecating reaction to doing something obviously dumb, like forgetting a password or misinterpreting a simple instruction. While the terminology is blunt, the meme remains a staple for internet users wanting to acknowledge their own 'smooth brain' moments with a touch of Bikini Bottom irony.