About

I Like Your Shoelaces is a catchphrase and Tumblr meme used as a covert way for users to identify fellow Tumblr users in real life or on other platforms. The expected response to the phrase is "Thanks, I stole them from the president," which serves as a reference confirming the speaker's familiarity with Tumblr culture.

After appearing in 2012, the phrase became closely associated with Tumblr's early-2010s culture and was later revived through increased interest in Tumblr nostalgia. As the site's older memes and trends became subjects of nostalgic discussion, I Like Your Shoelaces came to be referenced ironically as a relic of Tumblr's past.

By the 2020s, the exchange was generally regarded as one of the more dated and particularly cringeworthy examples of Tumblr culture, often invoked ironically to parody the site's earlier community norms. Notably, the secret phrase is similar to The Narwhal Bacons at Midnight, which is a similar coded catchphrase created in 2009 for Redditors to identify themselves in public places.

Origin

Although the original post that began the exchange has since been deleted, and several of the accounts involved in the thread have deactivated, copies of the interaction have remained available through archived Tumblr posts and screenshots.^[1] The thread has subsequently been recirculated on Tumblr as an example of the website's early culture. The thread has 4.2 million notes as of August 2026.^[1]

According to Tumblr^[2] user @heritageposts, a blog dedicated to archiving notable pieces of Tumblr history, the original post in the thread was published on July 2nd, 2012. The preserved versions of the exchange subsequently became a reference point for discussions of early Tumblr memes and the site's former community culture.

Early Urban Dictionary^[3] entries from the time also documented the phrase during the early 2010s, describing the exchange as a way for Tumblr users to recognize one another outside of the platform by confirming that both participants were familiar with the reference.

Spread

The original Tumblr post and its associated exchange became widely circulated on the platform in the following years, with the catchphrase spreading throughout Tumblr as users adopted it as a way of identifying other Tumblr users, though usually in theory rather than practice. According to several now-deleted posts preserved through screenshots, the practice also reportedly carried over into real-life interactions.

For instance, on June 16th, 2017, the Tumblr^[4] blog accessibleposts made a post compiling screenshots of older posts in which the phrase is purported to have been used in real-world interactions with varying degrees of success, which received over 22,000 notes in nine years.

However, the authenticity of some of these accounts has been questioned, as they may have been fabricated in accordance with the well-documented tendency of Tumblr users to invent or exaggerate stories for entertainment.

On February 24th, 2019, Redditor sharpaywave posted a similar screenshot to the /r/tumblr^[5] subreddit, accompanied by the question, "Has anyone ever even tried that 'I like your shoelaces' crap in real life?" The post received about 650 upvotes as of August 2026.

Legacy

As Tumblr nostalgia became more prominent in the late 2010s and 2020s, the phrase was increasingly circulated as an intentionally outdated example of Tumblr culture and became primarily associated with nostalgic and ironic references to the culture of early Tumblr.

For example, on August 7th, 2024, TikTok^[5] user @dicklessthewonderclown posted a video describing their sister accidentally referencing the phrase, which shocked the user. The video received roughly 603,200 views and 122,800 likes in over two years.

On March 23rd, 2025, TikTok^[6] user @dmitrikasanovich posted a skit recreating an attempt to use the code in public before repeating "complete the ritual." The video received about 2.1 million views and 230,000 likes in over a year.

On February 8th, 2026, TikTok^[7] user @lovebunnycosplay posted another skit based on the phrase, presented in the style of the anime Death Note. The video received roughly 781,300 views and 156,800 likes in over six months.

Various Examples

Related Memes

The Narwhal Bacons at Midnight

The Narwhal Bacons at Midnight is a catchphrase that was created for Redditors to identify themselves in public places. It is used in fan art, rage comics, and is often referenced as an inside joke in Reddit threads.

Search Interest

External References