They Took Our Jobs!

About

"They Took Our Jobs!" is a memorable quote from the animated television series South Park which is often used to mock xenophobic attitudes and anti-immigration policies.

Origin

The phrase was originally quoted in Season 8 Episode 7 of South Park titled “Goobacks,” which aired on April 28th, 2004. In the episode, time-travelling immigrants from the future come to South Park in search of jobs. After newcomers take over the job market and drive down wages, a town meeting is held to discuss the immigration problem, during which construction worker Darryl Weathers complains that the future immigrants “took our jobs.”

Spread

On April 29th, 2004, Urban Dictionary^[1] Bob submitted an entry for “they took our jobs,” citing the South Park episode as the origin of the phrase. On August 25th, 2005, YTMND user blingShyne2 created a site titled "They Took Our Jobs!", featuring Darryl Weather's soundbites from the South Park episode. On October 13th, 2007, YouTuber yellowbrickplanet uploaded a montage of clips from the episode featuring the “took our jobs” line (shown below, left). In the following six years, the video gained over 350,000 views and 1,600 comments. On July 30th, 2008, YouTuber TPEERproductions uploaded another “took our jobs” montage (shown below, right), which accumulated upwards of 1.33 million views and 2,900 comments in five years.

On November 23rd, 2009, YouTuber Phatxam uploaded a Garry's Mod remake of the South Park scene (shown below). In the first four years, the video gained over 82,000 views and 160 comments.

On February 4th, 2010, a Facebook^[2] page titled “They Took Our Jobs, Dey Turk Er Jurbs, Durkur Duur” was created, which received more than 102,000 likes in the next four years. On January 20th, 2011, the single serving site TheyTookOurJobs.com^[5]was launched with an embedded video of the South Park scene and a soundboard featuring audio clips of South Park characters mumbling variations of the phrase (shown below).

On the same day, another single serving site Goobacks.com^[4] was created, featuring a demotivational poster of the future immigrants from the South Park episode (shown below).

On October 6th, a Quickmeme^[3] page titled "They Took Our Jobs" was launched, featuring still images of Darryl Weathers captioned with variations of "they took our jobs" (shown below).

Notable Examples

Search Interest

External References