In This Essay I Will
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About
In This Essay I Will is a writing cliché that has been used as a punchline in memes in which users put forward their outlandish fan theories. First used in a humorous way on Tumblr in 2017, the format gained viral popularity in March 2018 following a viral tweet.
Origin
"In this essay I will" is a writing cliché that can often be found in student essays,[1][2] typically as "In this essay I will explore/discuss [topic]" or "In this essay I will argue that [point]."
On November 25th, 2017, Tumblr[3] user chromolume a post about a scenario in which a person cooks ratatouille without using tomatoes, with the dish coming out ruined. Chromolume finished the post with an unrelated sentence reading, "in this essay i will examine how martin luther’s 95 theses lead to protestants being more boring than catholics." The post (shown below) received over 178,000 likes and reblogs in three years.
The "in this essay i will" cliché did not see further use in memes until March 7th, 2018, when Twitter[4] user @amandamyeo put forward a fan theory that character Li Shang from 1998 film Mulan is homosexual, using the cliché as a punchline. The post (shown below, left) received over 1,400 retweets and 6,100 likes in three years. On March 12th, Twitter[5] user @notnotviolet used the cliché in a tweet stating that no song will be able to overcome the iconic status of "Mr. Brightside" and "I Write Sins Not Tragedies", with the tweet (shown below, right) gaining over 36,900 retweets and 155,000 likes in three years.
Spread
Starting in mid-March 2018, the phrase gained viral popularity on Twitter and Tumblr, with users typically utilizing it as a punchline for posts in which they put forward their fan theories about songs, films and other media. On March 26th, Twitter[6] user @caroline_oreo posted a meme about "Low" by Flo Rida that garnered over 75,500 retweets and 342,000 likes in three years (shown below, left). On May 17th, Twitter[7] user @scene_destroyer posted a meme that accumulated over 20,600 retweets and 94,000 likes in the same period (shown below, right).
On June 19th, 2018, BuzzFeed[8] posted a collection of "In This Essay I Will" tweets.
After a period of active use in March-June 2018 period, format maintained moderate presence online in the following years, particularly on Twitter and Tumblr.
Various Examples
Search Interest
External References
[1] Scott's English Success – IELTS Task 2. Should you write: 'In this essay, I will write about both sides and give my opinion'?
[2] Quora – How can I write 'In this essay, I will discuss…' in a better way?
[3] Tumblr – chromolume
[4] Twitter – @amandamyeo
[5] Twitter – @notnotviolet
[6] Twitter – @caroline_oreo
[7] Internet Archive – @scene_destroyer
[8] BuzzFeed – 21 Of The Most Hilarious 'In This Essay' Memes On Twitter
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Top Comment
Weimario
Oct 12, 2023 at 11:39AM EDT