About

"Shit Just Got Real" is a memorable line of dialogue spoken by actor Martin Lawrence in the 2003 film Bad Boys 2, which became a popular online catchphrase in the years following its release, particularly in image macros and post titles or text used to convey a sense of escalation in the shown image and media.

Origin

On July 18th, 2003, the movie Bad Boys 2^[1] released in North America. In one scene, Martin Lawrence's character gets an important phone call that escalates the level of danger he and his partner are in. After he hangs up the phone, Lawrence says, "Shit just got real." On December 17th, 2010, YouTuber^[2] golivebutton uploaded the clip to YouTube, garnering over 519,000 views in 10 years (shown below).

On February 14th, 2007, the movie Hot Fuzz^[3] released in North America, also including the phrase.^[4] This helped boost its popularity, evidenced by a boost in search interest later that year as people began using the phrase online. On May 8th, 2007, for example, John Wiseman of Lemonodor made a post titled "Shit Just Got Real" about a fire breaking out in Los Feliz (shown below).

Spread

The phrase spread steadily online over the next several years, appearing consistently in image macros and post titles across social media platforms and websites (examples from 2008, 2008 shown below respectively).

The catchphrase reached a peak in popularity in 2012, associated with numerous popular image macros and post titles on sites like YouTube and Reddit (examples from 2012 shown below).

The phrase has remained popular online over a decade later and is still associated with successful posts across social media.^[5][6]

Various Examples

Search Interest

After the movie was out for while, an Urban Dictionary definition was created. However, Google searches for "Shit Just Got Real" didn't yield any relevant results until Jan. 2004. By June of '07, a YTMND and Facebook page were made for the phrase.

External References