About

Once Said… is a phrasal template used in conjunction with a photograph of a cultural figure. The post is generally used to spark conversations, similar to Sco Pa Tu Manaa. The template follows the format: "[X] once said…"

Origin

While the exact origin is unknown, the earliest known usage of the meme was posted on June 20th, 2019 by Facebook ^[1] account "SA Hip Hop Exclusives," who wrote "A-Reece once said??😇" The post received more than 80 reactions, 50 comments and 50 shares (shown below).

Several months later, the same meme was posted to Twitter by @lucid_kt_.^[2] The post featured a photograph of recording artist A-Reece, as well (shown below).

Spread

On October 20th, Twitter^[3] user @Alliance_zw posted the format by asking people to respond with the answers (tweets shown below). They tweeted, "Your Country's President once said __________?" and "A famous tweleb once tweeted ___________?"

On October 26th, Twitter^[4] user @kbwayne1 tweeted a photograph of the recording artist Drake and the caption "Drake once said ?" The post received more than 4,400 likes and 740 retweets (shown below, right).

On October 30th, Twitter^[5] user @selarlene responded to a tweet featuring Kim Kardashian-West with the quote "Maybe if you had a fucking business that you were passionate about you would know what it takes to run a fucking business but you DON’T." The post received more than 122,000 likes and 26,000 retweets in less than one week (shown below).

On November 22nd, 2019, The Daily Dot ^[6] published a report on the meme.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References