About

Cope is a word used to describe the act of dealing with something difficult. Online it has become an insult implying that someone is upset, particularly on Twitter, often in tandem with similar words like "seethe" and rent free.

Origin

On August 9th, 2019, Urban Dictionary ^[1] user omikes added a definition for "cope." The definition attributes usage of the term to incels being unable to accept their unattractiveness (shown below). It reads, "A cope or coping mechanism, is a psychological strategy whereby someone rejects a harsh truth, and adopts a less disturbing belief instead. It is a term often used my looksmaxing incels to indicate that a given strategy is invalid or ineffective."

Precursors

Deal With It

Deal With It is an expression used as a retort in response to someone's disapproval. It is often associated with image macros and animated GIFs in which the subject wears a pair of sunglasses. In mid-late 2005, Matt Furie, creator of Feels Good Man, posted a webcomic (shown left) on MySpace using the phrase. On SomethingAwful, the catchphrase is often used in the web forums and is where the "smug dog" animated GIF (shown right) originated but the date it was added is currently unknown.

Some People?? Use Soda?? To Cope??

Some people?? Use Soda?? To Cope??? is a Tumblr snowclone that pokes fun at bizarre self-care routines. On December 13th, 2016, Tumblr user computerworm posted a dialogue joke that read:

me on tumbulr: i hate piss and golden showers
person with a haikyuu doujinshi screenshot icon: ppl use?pisss to cope?great to know???? u hate mentally ill ppl lmao no offence like …. lol

The post has gained over 23,000 notes as of February 28th, 2017.

Spread

The term started to spread alongside the Copium on 4chan in the summer of 2019 and the Cancelling Plans Is OK snowclone in January of 2020. On 4chan, "Cope" was used in much the same way as described in Urban Dictionary (example shown below, left). On Twitter, "cope" was used as the punchline in the "Cancelling Plans" snowclone which sarcastically suggested ways to escape life's problems (shown below, right).

Political Use

Usage of "cope" spiked significantly around the 2020 US Presidential Election, particularly as a means of mocking the opposing political viewpoints. In the buildup to the election, "cope" and "Copium" were used to mock Trump's poor chances in November (example shown below, left). In November of 2020, the Twitter account Coping MAGA,^[2] now @RightWingCope, launched, an account dedicated to mocking Republicans dealing with Donald Trump's election loss. The account gained over 205,000 followers in four months (example shown below, right).

Search Interest

External References