Cool Story, Bro

About

“Cool Story, Bro” is a popular catchphrase / image macro used as a sarcastic response to to thread posts, trolls and general comments that are deemed boring, pointless or just too long to read.

Origin

The original image used for the macro originates from the issue #122 of Marvel comics The Incredible Hercules by Clayton Henry, first published on October 29th, 2008:

The origin of the expression, however, remains debatable; some argue that the dismissive phrase was first popularized through the YTP community YouChewPoop^[1], while many others cite 4chan’s /v/^[2] (videogame board) as the birthplace of the meme.

The phrase “cool story” as a sarcastic response was first documented on Urban Dictionary^[3] on June 8th, 2006. It can be traced back to a part in the 2001 movie “Zoolander,” in which a character tells a long winded adventure story and was told, “Cool story, Hansel,” after finishing.

The full phrase “Cool story, bro” did not appear on Urban Dictionary^[4] until January 5th, 2009. It is defined as "a phrase sarcastically used to indicate one’s disgust or indifference towards a tl;dr story.

Usage

The meme has been largely endorsed by 4chan’s /v/ community and has since spread across other affiliated imageboards, forums, blogs and chatrooms in multiple languages. The expression became especially popular on /v/ due to prevalence of user posts sharing personal, often lengthy stories that bear no relevance to the videogame forum.

Today, the phrase is widely used online and in real life to express one’s complete indifference towards someone else’s remark or as a casual dismissal of previous post with intent to troll other (or to dispel trolls). In addition, the phrase has been used in place of TL;DR or “too long, didn’t read.” Here’s an example of its usage on 4chan’s /v/:

Derivatives

There are a number of similar derivative expressions based on the phrase “cool story, bro,” as featured in image macros. In addition, following the influx of “cool story bro” on /int/ board, the phrase has been also used in languages other than English^[5].

Other examples of derivative macros include:

• Amazing anecdote, amigo!
• Brisk narrative, sibling!
• Fine tale, matey!
• Frigid dissertation, homeboy!
• Interesting chronicle, kinsman!

In Different Languages

External References

^[1] Marvel Comics – Issue 122 of the Incredible Hulk

^[2] Urban Dictionary – Cool Story

^[3] Urban Dictionary – Cool story, bro

^[4] Russian Lurkmore Wiki – Cool Story Bro