About

I'm Not Reading That is a catchphrase and meme format based on a screenshotted Twitter conversation where someone refuses to read a link when offered information. It's used as a simulated conversation between two people or entities where one of them is knowingly violating a certain law. When told that the person is breaking a law, and then linked the law that is being broken, the catchphrase is said by the offending party. The original tweet was posted in mid-2020, becoming an exploitable in the following months and years where users swap the people engaging in a discussion alongside their text.

Origin

On June 16th, 2020, Twitter^[1] user @TheRocketRalph replied to a since-deleted tweet by @skaijackson, pointing out that doxxing is a crime. Twitter user @BarstoolSyria then asked to see that law, whereupon @bambooney linked an online copy of a legal text^[2] defining the criminal act of stalking, which includes provisions for the usage of electronic communications to cause substantial emotional distress. @BarstoolSyria then replied that they refused to read the text provided. A screenshot of the interaction was uploaded to iFunny^[3] three days later (shown below), spawning the format.

Do you realize that doxxing is a crime
Please show me the law
law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18…
I'm not reading that

Spread

The format continued to spread to new sites and platforms in the following months and years. On June 19th, 2021, the format was used on Reddit for the first time on the subreddit /r/MemeTemplatesOfficial,^[4] gaining only 95 upvotes in six months (below, left). Much more traction was gained by a version^[5] at /r/AnimalCrossing, also on that same day, gaining 68,100 upvotes in six months (below, right).

Almost a year later, the format reemerged into popularity, particularly on /r/HistoryMemes.^[6][7][8] This is most prominently seen in the meme by Redditor^[6] EUEagleHawk, in which Hitler is denying that it is against the law to invade Czechoslovakia, which gained 6,400 upvotes in three months (shown below).

Examples

Search interest

References