About

The Good At Smash Bros Afro, also known as the Good At Smash Bros Haircut or the Good At Smash Bros Fro, is a slang term for a short afro sported by Black men that has become synonymous with being good at the Nintendo video game Super Smash Brothers. The concept stems from multiple professional Smash Bros. players who have the afro, as well as from the general signifiers of a Black, male nerd represented in American pop culture. The meme was first conceived on Twitter in 2021 but later trended on TikTok in 2022.

Origin

In the history of professional Smash Bros. gaming, what later became known as the "Good At Smash Bros Afro" was sported by multiple players. Some examples of Smashers are DDee,^[1] yonni^[2] and WaDi,^[3] among others (photos shown below, left to right).

On March 29th, 2021, Twitter^[4] user LeanandCuisine coined the term when he identified the haircut in a tweet reading, "If a nigga got this haircut and say he good at smash bros, believe him." Over the course of a year and a half, the tweet received roughly 247,100 likes (shown below).

Spread

Multiple replies were posted under LeanandCuisine's tweet that went viral in their own right. For instance, on March 29th, 2021, Twitter^[5] user __NoahGarcia tweeted, "That haircut with a fit like this….. you just gotta give up, you are not winning one game," and gained roughly 7,800 likes in a year and a half (shown below, left). Also on March 29th, Twitter^[6] user PhilDReads tweeted a photo of Joshua Henderson, known for his viral video^[7] about PAWGs, gaining over 3,000 likes in the same time period (shown below, right).

On October 24th, 2021, Twitter^[8] user starbounddd tweeted an iFunny meme that had borrowed LeanandCuisine's tweet, gaining roughly 152,700 likes in 13 months (shown below).

On TikTok

On March 31st, 2021, TikToker^[9] jaystick posted a video that spread awareness of LeanandCuisine's tweet to the platform, gaining roughly 312,400 plays and 56,800 likes in a year and a half (shown below, left). The concept continued to surface on the platform going into 2022. For instance, on August 10th, 2022, TikToker^[10] wavyy_davis posted a video with text overlay reading, "I finally made it out of the 'He's good at Smash Bros' Afro stage." Over the course of three months, the video received roughly 166,700 plays and 49,200 likes (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

Unavailable.

External References