It's Coming Home / "Three Lions"

About

"It's Coming Home" is a slogan amongst fans of the England national football team to express their optimism that their team will win at the FIFA World Cup. By saying "It's coming home" they literally mean that England will bring the World Cup home to England. Due to the overly optimistic nature of the slogan it has been used in memes designed to jokingly mock those who get overexcited at positive progress for England in international football. The term significantly rose in use during the 2018 World Cup as England progressed through the tournament.

Origin

The phrase "It's coming home" comes from the 1996 song "Three Lions"^[1] released by the band The Lightning Seeds with the lyrics written by comedians David Baddiel and Frank Skinner, who at the time presented a soccer themed comedy show "Fantasy Football League."

"Three Lions" was released to coincide with the 1996 European Football Championships which were being held in England at the time. The lyrics of the song cover the glory of England winning the soccer World Cup in 1966 and the pessimism caused by the subsequent failures to equal that feat.

Spread

The song was an instant hit in England and the chorus soon became a popular chant at football stadiums across the UK:

It's coming home, it's coming home, it's coming, football's coming home!

In 1998, the Lightning Seeds released an updated version to coincide with the FIFA World Cup being held in France that year. The song again was a hit and actually outsold the official England football team song.

Between 2002 and 2018, the song and its chorus received regular plays on radio and, with the proliferation of online streaming services such as Spotify, online as well. The chorus chant continued to flourish especially if England did well in a particular tournament.

Usage in Memes

During the FIFA World Cup in 2018, England advanced through the group stages and as of July 5th, 2018, advanced to the quarterfinals. Soon people started tweeting coincidental events which happened in 1966 (when England last won the world cup) and this year. All end with the slogan "Its coming home." @Footysupertips tweeted some coincidences, gaining over 250 retweets (shown below, left). User @lewii97 tweeted a more obscure coincidence, gaining over 60 retweets (shown below, right).

Meanwhile the slogan had found its way into many image memes of usually featuring England captain Harry Kane or England head coach Gareth Southgate. For example, Twitter user @KIERRANNN tweeted a picture of Kane with a phone, gaining over 860 retweets and 3,600 likes (shown below, left). User @Ky_Eades5 tweeted a picture of Southgate as Drake on his album Nothing Was The Same, which features the song "Hold On We're Going Home," gaining over 45 retweets (shown below, right).

Another popular variation of the joke inserted the song into various video clips. For example, a tweet by @TheSpainTrain posted a variation that edited the song into a scene from Friends, gaining over 270 retweets and 440 likes (shown below, top). A post by @LTJ_Northy edited it into a scene from Wolf of Wall Street, gaining over 170 retweets and 250 likes (shown below, bottom).

It’s coming home 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 pic.twitter.com/GIAD6tTZrB

— Its Coming Home 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 (@TheSpainTrain) July 4, 2018

Its coming home #England #FIFAWorldCup #startingtobelieve pic.twitter.com/035KqiMaGd

— Marc North (@LTJ_Northy) July 2, 2018

England's Semifinal Loss

On July 11th, 2018, England lost to Croatia in the World Cup semifinals, thus ending the "It's Coming Home" mantra that had been repeated by supporters during the Cup. On Twitter, users mourned and celebrated the loss with a variety of jokes around the phrase. For example, Twitter user @amyp0tter posted an Alexa Play Despacito joke, gaining over 800 retweets and 3,700 likes (shown below, left). User @danielhowell made a joke acting as though "football" was a person, gaining over 6,600 retweets and 50,000 likes (shown below, right). Similar jokes were covered in a Twitter Moment.^[2]

Other Twitter users made jokes around the phrase "They're coming home," referencing the English football team. A tweet by @brfootball gained over 11,000 retweets and 18,000 likes (shown below, left). Another tweet by @shotongoal247 gained over 2,400 retweets and 3,400 likes (shown below, right). Jokes of this type were covered by Time.^[3]

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References