About

Just Waiting For a Mate is a quote from a video featuring an inebriated man named Clinton who is confronted by the police after crashing his car. The footage inspired the creation of many image macros and remix videos.

Origin

In February of 2013, a video titled "I'm just waiting for a mate" was uploaded to YouTube by John Potter^[7] featuring footage from the Australian reality show Highway Patrol,^[5] in which Senior Constable Ash Bowden questions an intoxicated man behind the wheel of a car. During the exchange, the man claims he is "just waiting for a mate" when asked why he is sitting in a wrecked vehicle (shown below). The original YouTube has since be removed due to a copyright claim by Greenstone Pictures Limited.

Spread

On February 17th, 2013, Redditor Milkstorm submitted the video to the /r/videos subreddit,^[4] where it received over 2,400 up votes and 220 comments within the next three weeks. On February 19th, two Facebook^[1][2] pages titled "I'm Just Waiting For a Mate" were created, gaining upwards of 87,000 and 21,000 likes respectively. On February 27th, YouTuber PrimetimeThursdays uploaded a video featuring an electronic mashup using audio from the "waiting for a mate" video (shown below, left). Within two weeks, the video accumulated over 61,000 views and 60 comments. On February 28th, YouTuber ChadSkittles uploaded a music remix of the video (shown below, right), gaining more than 32,000 views and 60 comments within the next 11 days.

Notable Examples

Many users on the microblogging site Tumblr began posting image macros mocking the drunk driver under the tag "#just waiting for a mate."^[6]

Search Interest

External References