The 'That Escalated Quickly' meme features the character Ron Burgundy, played by Will Ferrell, from the 2004 comedy film Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy. In the movie, Ron utters the line while calmly reflecting on a brutal, impromptu battle between competing news teams that involved tridents and grenades. The meme first gained traction on platforms like 4chan and Reddit in the late 2000s and has since become the gold standard for reacting to online threads, news stories, or social interactions that spiral out of control with unexpected speed. It perfectly encapsulates the feeling of bewildered shock when a mild disagreement or simple event turns into an all-out disaster in record time.