About

Because It Just Is, Okay? is a catchphrase that often appears in memes that target and ridicule a certain opinion and is mostly commonly associated with various Soyjak meme formats. An example of a strawman fallacy, the phrase is used to present a person's opinion as childish and unsubstantiated, and create an impression that they are seething.

Origin

While the exact time at which the catchphrase started appearing in strawman arguments online is difficult to pinpoint, posts that ended with phrases such as "because it just is, okay?" and "because you have to, okay?" (often spelled "b-because" to imitate stuttering) started appearing on 4chan and other imageboards such as Soyjak.party in 2021, with separate instances of use dating back to 2020. On January 2nd, 2020, an anonymous user made one of the earliest such posts in the /pol/^[1] board.

The catchphrase first achieved memetic prominence in 2021 when it appeared in multiple posts on imageboards and first saw minor spread outside of it. For example, on February 25th, 2021, an anonymous user used the phrase in an argument in a /pol/^[2] thread, mocking his opponent's statement (shown below, left). On June 22nd, an unknown Redditor used the phrase together with a Soyjak to shitpost about philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. The post received over 120 upvotes in the /r/soyjak^[3] subreddit in two years (shown below, right).

Spread

Following the popularization of the catchphrase through 2021, it saw further use in 2022 and 2023, gaining a strong association with Soyjak memes thanks to the similarity in purpose. For example, on November 24th, 2022, an anonymous /pol/^[4] user captioned an image of a seething Chudjak with an exaggerated argument against NATO (shown below, left).

In 2023, the catchphrase inspired humorous versions tapping into absurdism in which Soyjaks failed to explain perfectly rational, commonsensical things. For example, on March 15th, 2023, iFunny^[5] user MiataMang posted one such meme that gained over 1,900 smiles on the app in eight months (shown below, left).

The catchphrase maintained its popularity in 2023 and has been commonly used on imageboards, iFunny, X and other platforms, both in memes and independently. Among all Soyjak variants, the phrase has been most frequently used with Feraljak.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References