Based Department

About

Based Department is a phrase typically used to express that another person’s actions or post is considered based. It used as if a person is receiving a phone call from a fictional "Based Department," such as "Hello, Based department?"

Origin

"Hello, Based department" began from users on various 4chan boards using phrases such as "hello, epic department? I'd like to file a claim" since at least April 21st, 2016 (shown below).^[1][2] A snowclone, "Hello X department?" emerged from this trend.

The first found mention of "based department" is in an October 17th, 2018 thread on the 4chan board /tv/. In the thread, a user posted "Hello, based department? I'd like to file a claim." in response to the original poster teaching their mom the meaning of the term "capeshit" (shown below).^[3]

Spread

The "Hello X department?" snowclone was probably popularized by American political commentator and activist Nick J. Fuentes, who began using it at some point on his webshow America First. A November 14th, 2018 /pol/ thread using an Apu Apustaja modeled after him associates his image with an "epic department" (shown below).^[4]

Further posts associating Fuentes with the "Hello X department?" snowclone were posted on /tv/ on January 11th, 2019 ^[5] and on /pol/ on May 27th^[6] (shown below, left). Additionally, the snowclone was used by Fuentes himself in tweets on February 7th^[7] and April 17th.^[8] Fuentes says "Hello, epic department?" in an April 25th clip from his web show uploaded to YouTube by tsu (shown below, right).^[9] The video gained over 11,000 views in sixteen months.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References