"Bait-and-switch humor has been around forever: set up an expectation, then flip it on its head. It's one of comedy's oldest tricks, and right now it's reviving an old trend on X. Users are cleverly playing with profile banners. The setup usually starts with a post about struggling to crop or format an image. But when you click into their profile to check, the banner reveals something completely different - often a joke that either undercuts the original image or turns it into a punchline."
"This isn't a brand-new joke, either. According to Know Your Meme, it dates back to at least 2019, when it began with a woman posting side-by-side photos of herself and her boyfriend and asking how to fit both into her header. The gag fizzled for a while but resurfaced in 2023 when users began posting images of trash cans, only for the cropped banner to reveal the person they were calling "trash.""
Bait-and-switch humor sets up an expectation and then flips it into a punchline. On X, users exploit profile banners to create visual bait-and-switches that reveal a different image when clicked. Posts often feign difficulty cropping or formatting an image to encourage profile visits. The tactic surfaced around 2019 and returned in 2023 with examples like trash-can images that crop to show a person labeled “trash.” Sports fans especially use the format to either hype players as the "GOAT" or roast rival teams, using implication rather than direct labeling to land the joke.
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