About

Big Mood is an internet slang term generally used to mean "relatable." It's popular primarily on Tumblr and Twitter and is often paired with absurd images or videos.

Origin

While the exact origin of "Big Mood" is unclear, the term was used in the Deftones song "My Own Summer (Shove It)" released in 1997.

"Hey you, big star
Tell me when it's over
Hey you, big mood, guide me to shelter
'Cause I'm through
When the two hits the six and it's summer"

Twitter users began using the phrase to mean "relatable" around late 2015 and early 2016. The Daily Dot^[4] notes that the phrase is an evolution of "mood," which was coined by Black Twitter in 2015 to mean "relatable." An early tweet to use the phrase "Big Mood" shows a man pushing a woman (shown below).^[1] It was posted January 7th, 2016.

Spread

The term saw increasing use over the course of the year. On February 4th, 2017, a definition of the phrase was posted to Urban Dictionary (shown below).

Over the course of 2017, "Big Mood" began appearing in YouTube videos with relatable situations. On August 22nd, YouTuber Skittlez Juice uploaded an animation about acting positive with the title "Big Mood," gaining over 624,000 views (shown below, left). On June 26th, YouTuber jennypenny uploaded a video of Tumblr posts applied to Steven Universe character Lapis Lazuli, titling the video, "Lapis "big mood" Lazuli" and gaining over 12,000 views (shown below, right).

On November 16th, Markiplier tweeted "What does 'big mood' mean?" gaining over 1,300 retweets and 19,000 likes.^[3] This tweet would later be revealed to be for a video he was making in which he investigated the phrase "Big Mood" that gained over 742,000 views (shown below).

On Tumblr, the phrase often appears in the tags section of posts featuring relatable content. For example, a post from November 14th, 2017 by oldschoolcelebrities^[5] showing Carrie Fisher in a trash can with a bottle of wine is tagged "big mood" and has over 136,000 notes (shown below, left). A bad acronyms post by Tumblr user ihateladygaga^[6] tagged "big mood" posted January 16th, 2018 gained over 550 notes (shown below, right). The Daily Dot^[4] covered the phrase on January 23rd, 2018.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References