About

This meme article covers the nebulous Wannabe-Gotti/Jersey Shore Douchebag internet meme that goes by many names.

In chronological order of appearance, the most notable of these instances are as follows:

• Lee Hotti (2006)
• My New Haircut (2007)
• Shit Was So Cash (2007)

But first, some background

Growing Up Gotti

In 2004, A&E began airing the series Growing Up Gotti, starring the daughter of the late mafia boss John Gotti, Victoria Gotti, and her three douchebag sons. The show was canceled by 2005 due to low ratings.

Lee Hotti

On January 9th, 2006 a user named MarlboroMan created a thread on the Sherdog forums entitled Pic of me and mah boys up in Jersey using a picture taken from the myspace of a New Jersey resident who called himself Lee Hotti.

Over the course of four days, the thread spanned 51 pages, garnering 935 replies; most of which ridiculed the people in the photo.

Many thought they embodied everything that was wrong with Myspace.
John and lee hotti PSA

By January 16th, 2006 a mock tribute site was constructed at Leehotti.com.

Today LeeHotti.com has been sold to a porn site, and two of the three brothers have taken down their Myspaces, with the exception of Jonathan who now features far less glitter and animated bitchs on his site, and has disabled comments.

My New Haircut

"My New Haircut" by mca1018 was uploaded to Youtube on June 27th, 2008. The viral video today has over 22 million views.

While there were hilarious parodies to be had, most of them seemed to neglect the Jersey Shore Douchebag wannabe Mafioso Italian-stereotyping that is key, and therefore fall outisde of the meme as seen here in "My New Haircut: Asian Addition."

Following up on the success of the initial video, mca1018 created a number of "My New Haircut" and the series L2X News on his Youtube page.

The "Shit was SO CASH" Copypasta

Acccording to Dramatica folklore, a young Paulie Carbone, calling himself "John," posted what would become the "So Cash" copypasta on /b/ in 2007.

My name is John, and I hate every single one of you. All of you are fat, retarded, no-lifes who spend every second of their day looking at stupid ass pictures. You are everything bad in the world. Honestly, have any of you ever gotten any pussy? I mean, I guess it's fun making fun of people because of your own insecurities, but you all take to a whole new level. This is even worse than jerking off to pictures on facebook.

Don't be a stranger. Just hit me with your best shot. I'm pretty much perfect. I was captain of the football team, and starter on my basketball team. What sports do you play, other than "jack off to naked drawn Japanese people"? I also get straight A's, and have a banging hot girlfriend (She just blew me; Shit was SO cash). You are all faggots who should just kill yourselves. Thanks for listening.

Pic Related: It's me and my bitch.

The "Shit was SO cash" Copypasta exploded in a burst-infusion of popularity before dying out some months later.

While Paulie Carbone was a real person, who died in a car accident that year, there are discrepencies that make it appear that "John" probably wasn't Paulie Carbone
car accident.

A tribute video for Carbone was made by his friends. Althought the man in the video has the same signature haircut and look, he does not appear to be the same person in the pics from the 4Chan posts. It is likely that the guy in the picture is one of many random Jersey Shore Douchebags depicted in many threads all around the internet.

The Common Thread

By comparing the Google Insights for Search data between "Lee Hotti," "My New Haircut," and "Shit was so cash," we can notice the connections between these different instances and draw conclusions.

• Although "Lee Hotti" peaked in January of 2006, there was a brief revival in interest in June, 2007.
• "My New Haircut" was created in June of 2007, coinciding with the "Hotti" revival.
• "My New Haircut" peaked in popularity in December, 2007.
• One month later, in January 2008 there was a revived interest in Lee Hotti.
• The "Shit was SO cash" copypasta first appeared the very next month, February 2008.

Notable YTMNDs

• http://guidos.ytmnd.com"
• http://hottitoomuchtanfordabody9.ytmnd.com/
• http://guidorly.ytmnd.com/
• http://peanutbutterguido.ytmnd.com/"

Conclusion
Growing Up Gotti with the help of the Internet helped to put a new face on an old stereotype.