The NPC meme is an internet meme that originated on message boards and social media platforms in 2018. It stands for "non-player character," a term borrowed from video games, referring to characters in a game that are controlled by the game's artificial intelligence rather than a human player. In the meme, an "NPC" is a person who is deemed to lack originality or independent thought, blindly following mainstream opinions or political ideologies without critical thinking. The meme typically features a simple, unremarkable cartoon character, often with a gray or white background, to represent the "NPC" figure.