Built Different

About

Built Different is a phrase used to suggest that a person is uniquely better than others in some way. It is often used to describe a person's performance in a given situation. In early July 2020, a series of ironic videos on TikTok began with people claiming to be uniquely powerful. Viewers commented "Built: Different" to describe them.

Origin

The origins of the phrase "built different" are unclear, but its earliest use was found in a March 8th, 2015 tweet^[1] from American comedian Kevin Hart. Since then, it has been used in the sports community to emphasize that a player or team is better than their competitors.^[2] An early example is an April 29th, 2016 tweet^[3] from American basketball player Hassan Whiteside describing Miami Heat player Dwayne Wade as "built different" for his performance in the 2016 NBA Eastern Conference Finals (shown below).

Spread

The first found ironic use of built different is an April 28th, 2019 tweet by isafrommars that gained almost 80,000 likes in a year.^[4] On July 3rd, Twitter user YesImRhymeSkeme retweeted^[5] a Movie Details tweet describing Disney as built different for assembling old recordings of Mr. Potato Head’s late voice actor for use in Toy Story 4 (shown below). The tweet gained over 760,000 likes and 110,000 retweets in a year.

TikTok Trend

In early July 2020, TikTokers began ironically claiming they could single-handedly fix a negative historical event. In the comment sections of earlier videos, viewers listed comedic descriptors, most notably, "Built: Different." As the trend continued into August, TikTokers added various similar descriptors to their Built Different videos.

On July 9th, 2020, TikToker woahryann uploaded the earliest known Built Different TikTok video about how he would stop the TikTok Ban (shown below). The video set to AzChike’s “Burn Rubber Again” Remix feat. ALMIGHTYSUSPECT garnered over 197,700 likes in a month.

On July 27th, 2020, TikToker braden.bruv uploaded a video with the hashtag #builtdifferent and claimed that he could have prevented Lincoln's assassination (shown below, left). The video received over 23,500 likes in two weeks. On July 29th, aj.king02 uploaded a popular example that added credentials to the video text (shown below, center). The video gained over 89,400 likes in 13 days. That same day, michaelpaster posted another popular example that accumulated over 142,900 likes in 13 days (shown below, right). StayHipp^[10] Published an article on the trend.

Related Memes

RIP But I'm Different

Bill Dipperly

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References