One Weird Trick / Doctors Hate Him
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About
One Weird Trick / Doctors Hate Him refers to a popular culture trope that’s frequently used in online advertisements dating back to the late 2000s, especially with clickbait, chumbox or pop-up ads. This trope has been parodied in jokes across the internet in the form of countless memes and shares many similarities to the Trainers Hate Him format.
Origin
Though the exact origin of these “One Weird Trick” and “Doctors Hate Him” advertisements is unknown, they began appearing online as early as the late 2000s. Appearing at the end of articles or on sidebars with a specific grid-style layout, these types of advertisements are commonly referred to as clickbait, chumbox or chumbucket and have been found on sites ranging from media publications like Daily Mail to New York Magazine. Though some of these ads appear to lead back nowhere, companies such as Barton Publishing, Taboola and Outbrain are some of the most prominent creators of such content.
Particularly popular in the early 2010s, these types of ads were prominent on journalism-based websites as an additional form of revenue and are often accompanied by clickbait terms like “15 hot celebs who dress too scandalously” or “Around the Web,” featuring poorly drawn illustrations, grotesque images or lewd photos to attract visitors. Though these chumbox ads began to fall out of fashion in the latter half of the 2010s, their pervasiveness online during the heyday has continued to maintain their relevance in online culture.
Spread
Over the years since these ads were commonplace, users across numerous sites and communities have created their own versions to mock the trope, typically mimicking their style and layout with the phrasal templates “One Weird Trick” and “X Hate Him/Her” with any type of expert for a particular field.
One of the earliest examples can be seen on Cheezburger[1] in the form of a demotivational poster (seen below) posted on December 2nd, 2011, by user chaffie. This meme uses the commonly seen “Dermatologists Hate Her” phrase featured in numerous parody ads.
Another popular style of such memes is Trainers Hate Him, which parodies a series of Force Factor ads from the early 2010s. One such meme was uploaded to Flickr[2] on May 16th, 2013, by user kadigan featuring a painting of the fictional character Popeye by DeviantArt[3] Artist axlsalles.
On October 17th, 2015, Twitter[4] user Smosh reposted another variant of this meme with a picture of Ash Ketchum from Pokemon (shown below) and received 920 likes and 230 retweets.
One weird trick! The 18 Best 'Doctors Hate Him' Memes http://t.co/qYjPHntazA pic.twitter.com/mT0m1dWHJb
— Smosh (@smosh) October 18, 2015
Using the phrase “One Weird Trick,” Redditor[5] mcnuccy posted a version of the meme on November 8th, 2017, to the r/MemeEconomy sub (seen below) where it was upvoted nearly 9,000 times.
On April 26th, 2017, Imgur[6] user Schadenfreuda uploaded another example under the title “Mostly Tasteless Star Wars Memes Volume IV” that included a “Doctors Hate Him!” meme depicting Chancellor Palpatine alongside a reference to “One Weird Trick.” The post (seen below) garnered 2,064 views and 62 points.
Various Examples
Template
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Top Comments
MPHJ
Mar 11, 2020 at 12:54PM EDT
Gumshoe
Mar 11, 2020 at 08:00AM EDT