The True Detective meme, primarily featuring Matthew McConaughey’s character Rust Cohle, stems from the gritty first season of the acclaimed HBO series. The most iconic version depicts a disheveled Rust smoking a cigarette with an expression of deep existential exhaustion and nihilism. While the show is a dark crime drama, the internet transformed Rust's intense philosophical monologues and chain-smoking habits into a symbol for being overwhelmed, overworked, or deeply cynical. It is frequently used to represent the feeling of being completely 'done' with a situation or the struggle of trying to explain a complex, nonsensical series of events to an uninitiated audience.