About

A Second Plane Has Hit The X, also known as A Second X Has Hit The Y, is a phrasal template popularized on Twitter and built off a phrase commonly associated with the September 11th, 2001, terror attacks in the U.S. The quote originates from the words used to inform then-President George W. Bush of the attacks, specifically, "A second plane hit the second tower. America is under attack." The format is an offshoot of the George Bush Learning About 9/11 meme, as well as the Turning Red 9/11 Debate meme. The catchphrase was repopularized in September 2022 after users began parodying it by replacing what the second plane "hit" in various jokes.

Origin

The earliest known memetic use of the phrase "a second plane has hit" is from December 9th, 2019, when Twitter^[1] user @Silver_FalconSA posted a tweet alongside a caption that read, "A second dragon plane has hit the tower. #PokemonSwordShield #NintendoSwitch," referencing the video game Pokemon Sword & Shield. The post gathered just three likes in nearly three years since its upload (seen below).

The earliest viral use of the meme was likely a March 22nd, 2022, post from Twitter user @LiberacesWraith,^[7] who tweeted "a second plane has just hit the queen" in response to a dril tweet. The tweet gathered over 7,000 likes in six months (seen below, left). Another early viral use of the meme is a tweet from Twitter user @linaposting^[8] on July 7th that reads, "my God, a second Shinzo Abe just hit the north tower." The post gathered over 18,000 likes in two months (seen below, right).

Spread

Following the emergence of the phrasal template meme in late 2019, it continued to spread in the early 2020s as more examples appeared, primarily on Twitter. One such example was posted on September 8th, 2020, by Twitter^[2] user @viperwave in a tweet that read, "A second Money Plane has hit the towers," in reference to a 2020 American action movie with the same name. The tweet gathered over 300 likes and 13 retweets in nearly two years (seen below, left). On October 31st, 2020, Twitter^[3] user @verynormalman posted a version of the meme to Twitter, making a reference to an Australian tourist attraction, gathering over 100 likes and 11 retweets in nearly two years (seen below, right).

On January 11th, 2022, Twitter^[4] user @irishloubega posted a tweet that read, "a second plane has hit the bored ape yacht club," gathering nearly 25 likes and one retweet (seen below, left).

On September 5th, 2022, Twitter^[5] user @patrickkateman posted a tweet that read, "Mr president a second plane has just hit the quan," gathering over 4,000 likes and 500 retweets in nearly two weeks (seen below, left). On September 8th, 2022, Twitter^[6] user @vampiretraums posted a tweet that read, "A second plane has hit Her Majesty," gathering over 200,000 likes and nearly 21,000 retweets in nearly two weeks (seen below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References