Editors note: This article is still a work in progress. Please excuse the mess.

About

This phrase originates from Portal 2. It occurs as GLaDOS, the main antagonist, is molded with a potato, is dropped down a seemingly bottomless pit with the player-character, Chell.

Reception

Due to GLaDOS' sarcastic tone, in which she uses to insult the player, the

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one of the main characters(GlaDOs, later reffered to by fans as PotaDOS), after being melded with a potato, saying to the main Protagonist("Chell"), while falling down a seemingly bottomless pit:
"Oh hi, how are you holding up? BECAUSE I'M A POTATO… clap clap clap… oh good, my slow clap processor made it into this thing, at least we have that."

it is the dry tone of the machine that says it, coupled with the way it reacts to it's former main enemy for the entirety of the last game and all of the current game until that point as a simple distraction, also wittily insulting the character.

simply searching "BECAUSE I'M A POTATO" in youtube results in many clips of this short speech, whereas many similarly funny parts of the game have far less results, as such this is easily definable as a 'growing meme', as it is not on the meme generators, as it is not a picture, rather the speech that follows the clip, however, this meme is certainly 'growing' as more and more people learn of it, yet it is not unknown, as many sites are selling clothing with the quote on and a picture of the robot potato, making it more like a conventional 'top line, picture, bottom line' meme