About

Gay Gay Homosexual Gay or I Can Still Hear His Voice is a catchphrase often paired with images of characters from popular media, in which one character reminisces another character mocking them. Starting on Tumblr in 2018, the meme gained popularity in January 2021 and spread to other platforms. Members of various online fandoms – particularly LGBTQ+ communities – use the meme to create fan art and poke fun at ships or general relationships between characters.

Origins

On November 19, 2018, Tumblr^[1] account relateablepicturesofyuugi shared an edited panel from the manga series Yu-Gi-Oh!. In the panel foreground, the character Yugi Muto remembers the character Pharaoh Atem, saying, "I can still hear his voice…" In the edited background, Atem says, "Gay gay homosexual gay," creating the impression that the memory of Atem is mocking Yugi. The post received more than 630 notes in less than three years (shown below).

Spread

Over the next few years, the image spread on Tumblr and Twitter Yu-Gi-Oh! communities. But in January 2021, use of the image and phrases, in particular "Gay Gay Homosexual Gay," began to grow in popularity. Members of various fandoms began sharing imaginary dialogue between characters within their respective media.

Artists began creating original fanart of characters in the style of the Yu-Gi-Oh! panel. On January 19th, 2021, Twitter^[2] user @cactuskhee shared the first known redrawing of the meme featuring characters from the video game series Danganropa,. The post received more than 20,000 likes and 4,900 retweets in less than two months (shown below, left).

Variations of the meme soon appeared on DeviantArt, where fans recreated the format with different characters, including original characters. On January 30th, DeviantArt^[4] user Coksii posted a version based on their original characters, which received more than 1,000 views (shown below, right).

Voiceovers began appearing as well. On February 2nd, the earliest known video version of the meme appeared on YouTube. YouTuber Wioll uploaded a voiceover of a comic by Twitter^[3] user @gogopri, featuring characters from the video game series Metal Gear (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References