About

"Haters to the Left" is a catchphrase used to direct negative people to leave. It often used in image macros and animated GIFs where people are making pointing gestures. (See also Haters Gonna Hate)

Origin

The phrase "haters to the left" was first spoken by Kenneth in an episode of the television show 30 Rock titled "The Source Awards", which originally aired on March 1st, 2007.

"Don't let no one in who's not on the list 'cause this mess is gonna get raw like sushi. So, haters to the left."

Definition

The first Urban Dictionary entry was created on November 26, 2009.

A command indicating that negative people should go away, or if you don't like something then GTFO. First spoken by Kenneth on the TV show 30 Rock in March 2007, popularized on celebrity gossip websites such as ONTD. Derived from lyrics in Beyonce's 2006 song Irreplaceable: "to the left, to the left / everything you own in a box to the left."

Beyoncé "Irreplaceable"

To the left, to the left. Everything you own in the box to the left.

The line was derived from lyrics in the Beyoncé single "Irreplaceable", released on December 5th, 2006. The lyrics take the perspective of someone who is breaking up with a significant other. The song hit #1 on the US Billboard Hot 100 on December 16th, 2006. The music video won BET's Video of the Year Award in 2007.^[7]

Spread

An entertainment and pop culture blog was created in October 2007 titled "haters to the left".^[2] A Facebook group called "Haters to the left" currently has 173 likes.^[3] The phrase is frequently referenced in the Livejournal community "Oh No They Didn't" (ONTD)^[4], and animated GIFs can be found on Tumblr.^[5]

When the question "what does 'haters to the left' mean?" was posed to Yahoo Answers on January 25th, 2009, it received an extremely long troll answer by Yahoo user Jon A.^[6]

Search

Search queries for "haters to the left" had a short spike in March of 2007 after the 30 Rock episode aired, but dropped back down until May of 2008.

Notable Examples

External References

^[1] Urban Dictionary – haters to the left

^[2] Blogspot – haters to the left

^[3] Facebook – Haters to the left

^[4] Livejournal – Oh No They Didn't

^[5] Tumblr – haters to the left

^[6] Yahoo Answers – what does haters to the left mean?

^[7] Wikipedia – Irreplaceable