Do you prefer X with one eye or two eyes

Origin

"Do you prefer X with one eye or two eyes" is a meme format in which a photo of a person or character is posted side by side with an edited version that has one eye removed, asking which the viewer prefers. It began in May 2024, when X (formerly Twitter) user @tswiftvoodoo posted two images of Taylor Swift with the caption "do you prefer taylor with one eye or two eyes?"

The post did not take off at the time. It only hardened into a meme eight months later, in January 2025. In other words, the moment of creation and the moment of virality are far apart here: the original post was rediscovered long after the fact, leaving the format intact while its original context fell away.

Spread

The turning point came on January 29th, 2025, when X user @frankiefeyy quote-reposted the original with the line "post this to deviantart and watch what happens." That quote post drew more than 68,000 likes within two days, and variations on the same format began appearing daily.

On the same day, X user @sinclairbian paired two shots of Liam McPoyle from the sitcom It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia — one with an eyepatch, one without — captioned "do you prefer liam with one eye or two eyes?" Because the character actually loses an eye in the show, form and subject lined up neatly, and the post is often cited as the one that set the direction for later variations. In Korean-language circles, a January 28th post by X user @AWHlTENIGHT applying the same edit to the members of Red Velvet spread through K-pop fandom.

Variations

The most talked-about variation reversed the premise. On January 30th, 2025, X user @monthlyseer posted an edit of the X-Men character Cyclops with two eyes on his visor, captioned "do you prefer cyclops with one eye or two eyes?" The joke works because the meme normally removes an eye, while Cyclops starts with a single visor — so the edit had to add one, and that inversion became the punchline.

Subjects then widened from real actors and singers to animated characters, VTubers and animals. The edit takes almost no skill, and crude paint-tool splicing suited the tone of the meme rather than hurting it, which helped it spread.

How it is used

• As a joke post inside a fandom: erase one eye from a favorite idol or character and ask which version is better
• As sarcasm about a situation where there is really only one option, while pretending to weigh both seriously
• As a twist on the format itself, by picking a subject like Cyclops whose premise is already broken
• As bait, posted to draw out people who answer the question earnestly

Sources

• Know Your Meme, "Do You Prefer Taylor With One Eye Or Two Eyes" — date of the original post, the January 2025 revival, and the @frankiefeyy, @sinclairbian and @monthlyseer posts
• X, @tswiftvoodoo (May 2024), "do you prefer taylor with one eye or two eyes?" — the original post itself