About

"Do it for the Vine" is an expression used to urge someone to perform a dare on camera for a Vine video. It became a well-known catchphrase in the Vine community after a video clip of a little girl dancing to the chant went viral on the video-sharing platform in January 2014.

Origin

On June 22nd, 2013, YouTuber Kaye Trill uploaded a hip hop track titled "Do It For The Vine," featuring lyrics describing the practice of making Vine videos with mobile devices (shown below).

Spread

On September 13th, 2013, BuzzFeed^[3] highlighted several notable "#DoItForTheVine" tagged videos in which people perform a variety of stunts. On October 13th, Urban Dictionary^[1] user Vine Master submitted an entry for "do it for the vine," defining it as a phrase used to persuade people to perform entertaining acts on camera.

On November 14th, Viner Tpindell uploaded a short comedy sketch video in which he walks on a woman dancing to the "Do it for the Vine" song, garnering over 5,600 likes and 3,500 revines in the following six months (shown below). On January 1st, 2014, a Facebook^[2] page titled "Do it for the Vine" was launched, accumulating upwards of 33,000 likes in five months.

Notable Examples

I Ain't Gonna Do It

On January 25th, 2014, Viner Diamonique Shuler posted a video of woman singing the phrase "Do it for the Vine" to a young girl who responds "I ain't gonna do it" while dancing (shown below). Within five months, the video gained over 592,000 revines and 543,000 likes.

On January 31st, YouTuber Vine Virals uploaded a compilation of Vines parodying Shuler's video, gathering more than 2.4 million views and 1,200 comments in the first five months (shown below).

On April 10th, the Sesame Street Vine feed uploaded a parody video in which the puppet Elmo sings the "Do it for the Vine" song with actor Craig Robinson (shown below). In the next two months, the video garnered upwards of 47,000 likes and 45,000 revines.

MFs in 2013

MFs in 2013 refers to a trend started on Instagram in early 2022 where creators would reference the phrase, "Do it for the Vine," but added the idea of, "MFs in 2013," or, "2013 MFs," to demonstrate people doing outrageous or dangerous tasks for the Vine. Many of the videos used the song "Trap Queen" by artist Fetty Wap, who is early 2014, led the charts in hip-hop music.

On April 13th, 2022, Instagram^[4] user mistah_g_ captioned a video of Captain America jumping out of a skyscraper window with, "'do it for the vi-' / 2012 mfs:" earning over 320 views and 52 likes in one month (shown below, left). On April 18th, 2022, Instagram^[5] user sora.gif.v3 replaced "2012" with "2013," earning roughly 178,600 views and 40,200 likes in three weeks (shown below, right).

External References