Jesus Christ It's a Lion Get In The Car!
About
Jesus Christ It's a Lion Get In The Car! is an expression often used to caption image macros featuring photos of lions or other felines, which was popularized on the /b/ (random) board of 4chan in 2006. It is often paired with the emoticon >:3, which is meant to represent the face of a lion
Origin
The first known instance of the phrase "Jesus Christ it's a lion get in the car" appeared in a Toothpaste for Dinner[1] webcomic titled "Basic Electronic Symbols" posted on August 30th, 2005.
Spread
DeviantArt user Verdot[2] claims to have illustrated the emoticon ">:3" in a circle with the caption "RAWR I AM A LION" during the summer of 2005. According to Internet culture wiki Encyclopedia Dramatica[3], an anonymous 4chan user posted a thread titled "All I Lerned in Colege", which featured the Toothpaste For Dinner comic sometime in February of 2006. Verdot posted his emoticon image in response, causing other users to associate the two images. An archive of the particular thread has not been found.
On May 31st, 2006, the first mention of the phrase outside of 4chan appeared on DeviantArt[5] as the title of a GIF animation depicting a man and a Jesus statue seeing a lion whose face was replaced with the emoticon. On July 4th, 2006, a definition for ">:3" was submitted to Urban Dictionary[4], associating the phrase "Rawr I'm a lion" with "Jesus Christ it's a lion get in the car." Throughout 2006, the phrase was used on a LOLcat shared on the Octopus Overlords forum[6], Yahoo! Answers[7], FARK[8] and the hacking blog SEO Black Hat.[9] In 2007, the LOLcat version gained greater popularity after being featured on I Can Has Cheezburger[10], appearing on My[Confined]Space[11], the Etiquette Hell forums[12] and LOLCatz.net.[13]
Operation LIONCASH
Operation Lioncash is a graffiti meme orchestrated by Anonymous, which involves defacing portraits on paper money with the lion face emoticon. It was started by an American 4chan user who first posted a one dollar bill with the emoticon to 4chan's /b/ board on April 23rd, 2008. Occasionally, photos of these bills continue to appear on Tumblr.[16]
Notable Examples
Search Interest
External References
[1] Toothpaste for Dinner – basic electronics systems
[2] deviantArt – JESUS CHRIST IT'S A LION
[3] Encyclopedia Dramatica – JESUS CHRIST IT'S A LION GET IN THE CAR
[5] deviantArt – JESUS CHRIST ITS A LION
[6] Octopus Overlords – Angriest Cat EVER!
[7] Yahoo! Answers – Where does the phrase/meme "Jesus Christ its a lion, get in the car!" originate from?
[8] FARK – Jesus Christ it's a lion, get in the car
[9] SEO Black Hat – Comment Section Contest: Google URL Redirect Fix
[10] I Can Has Cheezburger – JESUS CHRIST IT’S A LION
[11] My[Confined]Space – Jesus Christ it’s a lion, get in the car
[12] Etiquette Hell – What's your favorite LOLCat?
[13] LOLCatz – Jesus Christ its a lion Get in the car
[14] Straight Dope – Origin of "Jesus Christ it's a lion! Get in the car!"?
[15] Facebook – Jesus Christ its a Lion GET in the CAR
[16] Tumblr – Posts tagged "lioncash"
Recent Videos
There are no videos currently available.
Top Comments
Pat Bateman
Aug 21, 2012 at 04:36PM EDT
Emperor Palpitoad
Aug 21, 2012 at 06:14PM EDT