About

Because He Can Say the N-Word refers to phrasal template that jokingly indicates an advantage one person holds over another due to the supposed permission to say the racial slur. Stemming from Don't Say the N-Word memes, the snowclone gained popularity on Reddit in late December 2018.

Origin

In October 2018, iFunny user Vulpesio posted a series of memes in which he dubbed dialogs from the Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy, with a recurring punchline being Joker threatening to pronounce or starting to pronounce the n-word.^[1] The posts sparked an influx of similar memes, usually categorized as "I'm Gonna Say the N-Word" or "Don't Say the N-Word". In these posts, various characters said or threatened to say the racial slur.

By late November 2018, the trend achieved recognition in /r/dankmemes subreddit, with numerous posts titled with variations of "I'm gonna say the n-word" phrasal template^[2][3] posted by users. In late December 2018, memes in which a certain person or thing was considered more powerful due to the supposed permission to say the n-word gained popularity on the subreddit. One of the earliest known posts, submitted by Redditor^[4] le_Exodus_Chicken on December 26th, gained over 70,000 upvotes within two weeks.

Spread

In the following days, more variations of the meme were submitted by /r/dankmemes users. On December 26th, Redditor^[5] Luke_Goodman posted a macro featuring Star Wars character Mace Windu. The post gained 4,400 upvotes within two weeks. Another post by Redditor^[6] suprememeboi featuring T'Challa from Black Panther received 11,800 upvotes within the same period.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References