Why *Do* They Call It Oven When You Of In The Cold Food Of Out Hot Eat The Food?

For hundreds, maybe thousands of years, scholars have debated the question, "Why do they call it oven when you of in the cold food of out hot eat the food?"

More accurately, this inscrutable collection of words has been an internet staple for about three years, though it's circulated online for nearly a decade.

If you've read this bizarre question before and wanted to know just what the heck happened at this great car crash of a meme, read on. We'll do our best to explain.

Where Does "Why Do They Call It Oven?" Come From?

If you're familiar with the meme, you most likely know the Garfield parody comic in which Jon Arbuckle asks the question while operating an oven. However, the question was actually first typed by an ostensibly real person, Twitter user @YashichiDSF, in August of 2013. YashichiDSF is a Missouri-based speedrunner who saw his tweet gain tens of thousands of retweets over the following nine years.

The phrase truly took off as a meme in August 2019, six years after it was first posted after Tumblr user ewaneneollav made a Garfield parody that put the question in Jon Arbuckle's mouth.

From there, the phrase saw heavy use in Garfield-related memes, giving us the meme we know and love today.

What Does It Even Mean?

To be honest, nobody, not even @YashichiDSF, seems to know. It seems like he was setting up for a quirky linguistic observation, similar to the classic parkway/driveway quirk of English, but just fumbled the ball spectacularly.

However, therein lies the charm of the meme. The beginning of the sentence looks like it could be an interesting point about English before devolving into utter nonsense. It's like a trail of breadcrumbs brain that starts in reality before entering Narnia. One of the most popular iterations of the meme depicts Jon Arbuckle having a stroke as he's saying it.

How Can I Use "Why Do They Call It Oven…?"

The beauty of the sentence being complete nonsense is that it can be applied in any context and have the same effect. While we've seen many Garfield iterations of the meme, it's been applied to a wide range of media, meaning that if you too want to wonder why they call it oven when you of in the cold food of out hot eat the food, all you have to do is dream.

For more information on the oven and the food out hot eat cold the food or whatever, check our entry here.