Dudes Rock

About

Dudes Rock is a catchphrase used mostly on Twitter to either ironically or sincerely celebrate men doing juvenile yet wholesome activities. The phrase developed as a meme among the Chapo Trap House fandom before branching out into a wider audience in the early 2020s.

Origin

On January 19th, 2018, Twitter^[6] user @intellegint posted the first tweet that used "dudes rock" as a means of celebrating the concept of "dudes," which received nearly 50 likes in roughly five years (shown below).

According to MEL Magazine's^[2] Miles Klee, "Dudes Rock" originated as a semi-ironic means of subverting the "boys will be boys" trope that was harshly criticized during the #MeToo movement, writing:

As a fledgling in-joke, “dudes rock” was a convenient way to satirize unprovoked, red-pill-type machismo -- observing Mother’s Day by noting the supremacy of dudes, for example. But it also quickly became a shorthand for owning up to activities that, while not explicitly bad, feel intrinsically or even embarrassingly dude-like, from gaming for hours on end to growing a neckbeard to cracking open a cold one with the boys. While inundated with stories about awful, predatory men, you could still look at your unsheeted mattress and say to yourself: dudes rock.

Spread

On May 13th, 2018, Twitter^[1] user @blood_orphan then posted another early example of "dudes rock" on Twitter, which received an unknown amount of engagement before their account was privated (shown below).

The phrase quickly became an in-joke amongst the Chapo Trap House hosts, and by extension, their fandom. On September 10th, 2018, hosts Will Menaker and Matt Christman^[3] had an exchange on Twitter where they both voiced "dudes rock" (shown below, left). On October 12th, the podcast E1^[4] devoted an episode to defining "Dudes Rock," coming up with definitions such as, "Dude excellence is to me is like when I post a selfie, I think I’m looking fresh when I’m coming out of the 7-Eleven with like eight bags of Nacho Cheese Doritos -- I post a selfie, and any girls who fave that? Block all of ’em."

The phrase continued seeing use over the following several years, as people began associating it with memes and news stories. For example, on January 24th, 2019, Twitter user @bobby posted a Video Games Appeal To The Male Fantasy using the phrase, gaining over 240 retweets and 1,500 likes (shown below, top). On April 4th, 2021, Twitter user @infinitsummer^[5] used the phrase in reference to a Reddit post asking why so many guys came to help the user dig a hole, gaining over 8,800 retweets and 115,000 likes (shown below, bottom).

On May 10th, 2020, Matt Christman appeared in an interview with Jacobin and discussed Dudes Rock, admitting the phrase lent itself to misinterpreting it as sexist, but maintaining it means to celebrate non-toxic forms of masculinity, particularly online.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References