About

Fuck Them Kids refers to an ironic inspirational photo quote depicting retired professional basketball player Michael Jordan saying, "Fuck them kids," in reference to a video of him from 2016 sinking shots despite a crowd of summer camp kids trying to distract him. The image macro was first posted to Twitter in late 2018 and became a notable reaction image on platforms like Instagram. The catchphrase was also placed over other celebrity headshots going into 2022.

Origin

In late July 2016, professional basketball players Michael Jordan and Chris Paul were at a summer camp event where they decided to wage a friendly bet: if Jordan missed three shots the entire camp got free Jordans. The bet was documented in a video where Jordan proceeded to make every shot. None of the kids got Jordans. It was uploaded to YouTube on July 30th, 2016 by the channel HoopJab, who received roughly 715,300 views over the course of six years (shown below).

On September 4th, 2018, the video resurfaced online, inspiring Twitter^[1] user KILLATEX to create a fake inspirational photo quote of Jordan saying, "Fuck them kids" (shown below). Over the course of five years, the tweet received five likes.

Spread

The image macro received its first spike in attention and usage after it was included in a controversial Twitter thread dating back to September 12th, 2018.^[3] It involved a now-suspended Twitter user, _kingneal, who relayed his story about how he had left his wife and kids to move in with a woman he'd only met once. The Twitter user used the "Fuck them kids" image in his thread, using it both earnestly and ironically to show that he was proud of his actions. Subsequently, the story and the use of the meme came off as arrogant to many and inspired mass outrage. On September 14th of that year, Instagram^[4] page officialmayorspeaks posted a compilation of screenshots from the thread, earning over 450 likes for the image over the course of four years (shown below).

From this notoriety, the image macro took off en masse going into 2019, turning into a notable reaction image. For instance, on November 22nd, 2018, Twitter^[5] user RidiculousDak tweeted a Thanksgiving joke, earning roughly 13,000 likes over the course of four years (shown below, left). On January 27th, 2019, verified Instagram^[6] meme page whitepeoplehumor used the image in a meme, earning roughly 44,800 likes over the course of three years (shown below, right).

In early 2019, other black and white headshots of celebrities and characters started getting their own "Fuck them kids" images. The first known one was a photo of Anakin Skywalker from Star Wars (shown below left). Although the original creator is unknown, the earliest known repost is available on Me.me,^[7] uploaded on February 19th, 2019. Its most notable usage was posted by Twitter^[8] user WizardBelly671 on March 1st, 2020, who used it in a reply to a tweet about Lebron James, earning roughly 3,400 likes over the course of two years (shown below, right).

Various iterations of the image macro including different celebrities, characters and NBA players surfaced going into the rest of 2019, 2020 and 2021. For instance, on November 21st, 2019, Redditor CallofDuty_NZ posted a version to /r/MemeEconomy^[9] featuring Jeffrey Epstein, earning 35 likes in two years (shown below, left). On September 6th, 2020, Instagram^[10] page nbamemesgod posted a version with NBA player Russel Westbrook, gaining roughly 22,200 likes over the course of a year and a half (shown below, right).

Related Memes

If "Fuck Them Kids" Was An X

A phrasal template started to evolve from the meme in 2019 on Twitter. Meme creators labeled images with the catchphrase, "If 'fuck them kids' was a person." The first to do so was Twitter user mase_motsapi, who although was the first to do so, received no likes for their tweet (shown below).

If "fuck them kids" was a person 😂😂😂 pic.twitter.com/m2VRVPA3vh

— MASE (@mase_motsapi) August 7, 2019

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References