About

Be Careful Who You Call Oomf refers to a catchphrase using the internet slang "oomf," which is an acronym meaning “one of my friends.” The phrase grew popular in March 2021 on X, former Twitter, paired with an illustration of a girl with her arm around another girl's neck and shoulder but her arm is actually a snake, suggesting it's not a trustful person.

Origin

The original illustration of a girl with a snake arm around another girl's neck was posted on Facebook on May 14th, 2019, by the meme page @ButWhoCares.^[1] The image is accompanied by the text "Sometimes friends are not as we expect," which amassed over 5,200 likes and 2,600 reposts in five years.

The earliest known version of the meme was posted on X^[2] on March 3rd, 2021, by the meme page @reactjpg. The image (seen below) amassed roughly 105 likes and 40 reposts in three years.

Spread

The "Be careful who you call oomf" became a phrasal template meme over the following years, often paired with illustrations and pictures of a friendship duo that one of the individuals is not trustworthy. For example, on November 29th, 2023, X^[3] user @eIeven posted a male version of the snake arm false friend (seen below), which garnered over 696 likes and 134 reposts in a year.

On September 1st, 2022, the Instagram^[4] page @dragqueenmerch posted the phrasal template accompanied by an image of two blonde women (seen below), which received roughly 235 likes in two years.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References