Bro Really Said "X"

About

Bro Really Said "X" is a catchphrase and phrasal template used when an image or video of someone's actions resembles an Emoji, the most notable one being the Bro Really Said "🚶" text overlayed in a picture of a man walking a parking lot wearing similar clothing to the man walking emoji. The image went viral on Reddit in 2019 and over the next few years, variations of the phrase combined with other emojis were popularized on social media.

Origin

On September 10th, 2019, Redditor^[1] @gizmondo100 posted a picture (shown below, left) of a man crossing a parking lot paired with the macro "This dude really said '🚶,'" which amassed over 2,600 upvotes and nine comments in five years.

A few years later, on February 2nd, 2022, Redditor^[2] @LucasJK_ posted the same picture with the overlay text "bro really said '🚶'" using the same walking man emoji, which amassed more than 15,000 upvotes and 55 comments in two years (original post deleted, reupload shown below, right).

Spread

Memes combining the "bro really said" phrasal template with several other emojis became more widesprad on Twitter / X, Reddit and TikTok in the following years. For instance, on January 11th, 2023, X^[3] user @pastegoats used the "bro really said" phrase paired with the skull emoji, which amassed more than 5,900 likes and 640 retweets in a year (shown below, left).

On May 16th, 2022, 9GAG user @9GAGGER^[4] posted a screenshot of a teen with a hairstyle that resembled the telephone emoji, with a comment saying "he literally said '☎️.'" The post (shown below, right) received more than 50 upvotes and six comments in two years.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References