If you’re not familiar with it, here’s how a Photoshop battle works: redditors (Reddit users) upload unedited interesting photos to the subreddit and its subscribers are encouraged to photoshop the images in any way they want and submit the artwork in the comments section where they are voted on by the community. The more votes a particular photo manipulation generates, the higher in the section it is displayed, and the one that receives the most points “wins” the battle.
Currently, the time-sensitive and competitive /r/photoshopbattles is the 31st biggest subreddit with over 15M subscribers. On average, 111 funny photos appear on it every day, receiving 310 comments during their first 24 hours. One time, a picture of Norwegian prime minister Erna Solberg pouring coffee sparked a Photoshop battle. Redditors used the photo to put Solberg in Star Wars, Jurassic Park, and Game of Thrones, among many other scenarios. It escalated up to a point where the politician herself noticed what was going on and acknowledged the photo editing competition. “I realize that with the facial expression I have there, it can be tempting to use the picture in other contexts,” Solberg toldVGTV.”