EEEVVVERRRYYYONNE! / Stansfield

About

“EEEVVVERRRYYYONNE!” is a popular reaction image, textual, or verbal response used in order to emphasize that “everyone” is affected by something. It is used in an intentionally melodramatic and emphatic manner.

Origin

The meme originates from a line ferociously delivered by Norman Stansfield, a fictional character portrayed by Gary Oldman in the 1994 thriller film, Léon, known by several other titles including The Professional in the U.S. market. Oldman’s deliberate, exaggerated delivery of this and other lines from the film have caused them to become quote-worthy and referenced in other contexts, as well as causing the Stansfield character to become notable in film critiques.

The “everyone” line plays out as the following in the film:

SWAT Team Leader: Alpha team, man down, man down.
Norman Stansfield: I told you. Benny, bring me everyone.
Benny: What do you mean “everyone”?
Norman Stansfield: EV-ERY-ONE!!

The intense, perhaps even shocking delivery of the line has been seen as both meaningfully dramatic, and also humorous to some viewers because of Oldman’s over-the-top style of acting used for the role:

Oldman’s exaggerated delivery of several other lines in the movie have also made them memorable and repeated in pop culture, most notably, “I haven’t got time for this Mickey Mouse bullshit!”

Usage and Spread

“EVERYONE!” is sometimes used as a humorous response to a real-life or online conversation in which the word everyone has been already used without context to the meme. Example:

“Everyone is coming over to the house at 6:00 PM this evening.”
“Everyone?”
“EEEVVVERRRYYYONNE!!!”

Although exactly when Stansfield’s quotations became memetic is uncertain, Google Insights shows a sharp rise in searches for “the professional everyone” in the first half of 2009: