Detective Cole Phelps and X button labeled "Dount"

L.A. Noire "Doubt" / Press X To Doubt

Part of a series on Reaction Images. [View Related Entries]

Updated Jan 23, 2023 at 02:50PM EST by Zach.

Added May 19, 2017 at 12:58PM EDT by Adam.

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About

L.A. Noire "Doubt", also known as Press X to Doubt, is a reaction image taken from the video game L.A. Noire by Rockstar Games used in memes to express disbelief in a headline or a thread's previous statement.

Origin

In the video game L.A. Noire, the player plays as detective Cole Phelps in 1940s Los Angeles.[1] One of the major gameplay features of L.A. Noire are scenes in which Phelps interrogates witnesses to crimes. After a witness makes a statement, the player is presented with three options. The player must choose whether to accept the statement as truthful ("Truth"), express doubt of the witness' statement ("Doubt"), or accuse the witness of lying ("Lie"). An image of Phelps' face looking disbelieving accompanied by the "Doubt" prompt became the reaction image (shown below, left). On December 4th, 2012, the image without the caption was posted to Funnyjunk, [2] and the comment accompanying the image was "(X) Doubt." This likely was the first iteration of the meme (shown below, right).


screengrab of detective Cole Phelps from the game LA Noire looking in disbelief with caption saying press square to doubtscreengrab of a funnyjunk post showing scene from LA Noire and captioned with press x to doubt

Spread

The image was posted on Funnyjunk several more times over the course of 2013,[3][4] cementing the meme's purpose as a means to express doubt. The meme also found use on Tumblr and Reddit in the coming years. In this time, it also began being used in Coaxed Into a Snafu variations. For example, a post from Tumblr user loatheoflaughing about Fallout 4 expressed doubt that the game would feature no loading times as promised, turning into a thread[5] with several Coaxed Into a Snafu variations (shown below). The post gained over 28,000 notes.


Be skeptical FALLOUT 4 WILL HAVE NO LOADING TIMES prismgate Doobt haansjob the story you're 2S(X )currently speaking of seems illegitimate

The popularity of Coaxed Into a Snafu edits made the meme a good fit for the Increasingly Verbose Meme template. On September 30th, 2016, Redditor le 43eyes compiled previously existing Snafu edits to make it appear as an Increasingly Verbose Meme, gaining 4,700 points on the Coaxed Into a Snafu subreddit[6] (shown below).


Doubt e skeptical Hard to oJ believe the story you're ( )currently speaking of seems illegitimate diven the lack ef bighly soult tlace alibi you have given When one coaiders a the walable idence both one ary find themsehes find mvelf leaning cowards

Various Examples


Doubt LIE D Doubt Doubt

Search Interest

External References

[1] Wikipedia – L.A. Noire

[2] Funnyjunk – First X Doubt Comment

[3] Funnyjunk – search for One Evil Mothafucka (page unavailable)

[4] Funnyjunk – So moist and delicious

[5] Tumblr (via Wayback Machine) – sickwheelchaircombos post

[6] Reddit – Doubt

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