About

Men Used to Go to War, also Men Used to Hunt Mammoths, refers to a phrasal template prevalent on X / Twitter in which the setup is continued by describing something men are doing today instead of going to war. First popularized by a viral post in July 2022, the format has been used to make jokes and memes about masculinity or lack thereof on the platform since.

Origin

On February 6th, 2022, X^[1] / Twitter user @travworldpeace wrote, "men live tweeting euphoria. we used to hunt mammoths." The post, a precursor to "men used to go to war" format, gained over 720 reposts and 4,200 likes in two years (shown below).

On July 31st, X^[2] user @httpdenali wrote, "men used to go to war. now they order a vodka cran." The post (shown below) gained over 7,400 reposts and 65,000 likes in two years.

Spread

On August 7th, 2022, X^[3] user @cutemadarchod made a similar post, writing that men now "buy blueberry flavoured vape." The post (shown below) received over 12,000 reposts and 106,000 likes in two years.

Following the post, the phrasal format achieved virality on X / Twitter, with multiple users making jokes based on the format. For example, posts made by X^[4][5] users @najpie and @heavenbrat on August 9th and August 11th, received over 3,300 reposts and 29,000 likes, and 24,000 reposts and 199,000 likes, respectively, in two years (shown below, left and right).

On August 9th, 2022, BuzzFeed^[6] posted a collection of "Men Used to Go War" memes.

The format, along with the "men used to hunt mammoths" setup, maintained a presence on X / Twitter in 2023 and 2024, typically being used to make jokes about masculinity, often ironically.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References