Do Want / Do Not Want

Do Want / Do Not Want

Part of a series on Internet Slang. [View Related Entries]

Updated Sep 18, 2019 at 05:30AM EDT by Y F.

Added May 14, 2009 at 01:04AM EDT by Dave Davidson.

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DONOT WANT photo caption DO WANT pink cartoon skin purple human hair color nose anime cheek fictional character mouth forehead

About

Do Not Want, and its positive counterpart Do Want, are catchphrases typically used in reaction image macros to express one's opinion on an image, video, or post. The phrase can also be modified with varying degrees of desire including "sort of want" and "don't know if want." It is used similarly to This Is Relevant to My Interests as a social cue to convey to other people whether the material is worth viewing.

Origin

On June 7th, 2005, blogger Jeremy Winterson[1] compiled a set of photos[3] he took of a Chinese bootleg DVD of Star Wars Episode III: The Revenge of the Sith[2], comically mistranslated as Star War The Backstroke of the West. The movie included many Engrish translations including the "Jedi Council" becoming "The Presbyterian Church" and "the force" becoming "the wish power." During the pivotal scene where Darth Vader learns of his wife's death, his famous line "NOOO" was translated as “Do not want" in the subtitle.


03:08:52829 LTCR 03:08:52:23 Do not want Anakin Skywalker Padmé Amidala entertainment event technology phenomenon

Spread

On June 17th, 2005, Winterson's blog post was featured on the official Star Wars blogsite[4] by lead writer Bonnie Burton.[5] Later that day, a link to the blog post was shared on BoingBoing.[6] In July 2005, “Do not want” as a way to express disapproval appeared in a comment on deviantArt.[7] In December 2006, both "do not want"[8] and the positive "do want"[9] image macros began to appear in archived 4chan threads.


DO NOT WANT Dog dog dog like mammal dog breed dog breed group hokkaido photo caption shiba inu shikoku DO WANT person forehead chin

In January 2007, the phrase "do not want" was placed over a photograph of the Broccoli Dog and posted in a FARK thread[20] titled "Who’s the Boss Star posts naked pictures of self on web, Sadly is not Alyssa Milano." In August 2008, "do not want" became associated with the Italian politician Massimo d'Alema after it was used to caption an photo of him on Pundit Kitchen.[14] A year later, it was reposted on Motifake[15] as a demotivational poster.


DO NOT WANT GUY Just doesn't want motifake.com Massimo D'Alema photo caption motivational speaker

On January 27th, 2009, Winterson posted an updated version[13] of his original blog entry with clearer screenshots taken on his computer. The phrases are also used as tags on Tumblr where "do not want"[16] and "do want"[17] are used as commentary about the content of the post. The same thing occurs on Twitter with the hashtags #donotwant[18] and #dowant.[19]






Notable Examples


DO WANT. fauna mammal whiskers snout photo caption beaver DOWANT n Dr. Evil Panini cartoon pink text nose vertebrate emotion fictional character smile DO WANT Hugh Laurie Dr. Gregory House person facial hair chin beard photo caption
SORT OF WANT person forehead chin photo caption VARYING DEGREES OF WANT Wakfu cartoon mammal vertebrate text anime fictional character fiction screenshot photo caption dog dog like mammal pomeranian dog breed german spitz mammal german spitz klein dog breed group vertebrate puppy carnivoran
DO NOT WANT cat mammal small to medium sized cats photo caption cat like mammal whiskers Pinkie Pie Scootaloo Pony green cartoon pink mammal vertebrate anime fictional character illustration art DO NOT WANT Peter Griffin Family Guy: Back to the Multiverse Lois Griffin Brian Griffin Glenn Quagmire cartoon mammal comics games vertebrate text fiction

Search Interest

Since "do want" and "do not want" are very common phrases, it is hard to determine search interest. While search for "Backstroke of the West" peaked in August 2005, search for "do want" or "do not want" paired with the word "meme" did not start picking up until late 2009. "Dowant" appearing as one word, possibly due to its use as a filename[11], had a small peak in December 2008, possibly due to its use in holiday gift guides.[10][12]

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