About

Promise Me You'll Stop For Me refers to a series of jokes and memes parodying stereotypical appeals one makes when asking another person to stop self-harm. In jokes, people intentionally confuse self-harm scars with other injuries and marks, such as circumcision scars and receding hairlines.

Origin

On November 2nd, 2022, X^[1] user @carobunga made a joke about circumcision, writing, "*touching his circumcision scar* they hurt you." The post gained over 15,000 reposts and 184,000 likes in two years.

On November 3rd, X^[2] user @KADETHEFIRST made a post building upon the joke, implying that the circumcision scar was a result of a person practicing self-harm. The post (shown below) received over 7,000 reposts and 88,0000 likes in two years.

Spread

On November 28th, 2022, X user @puppybref copied the joke (post since removed), with a December 5th iFunny^[3] repost garnering over 11,500 smiles in two years.

On March 22nd, 2023, X^[4] user @oncloud_e posted the earliest derivative joke based on the phrasal template. The post (shown below) received over 600 reposts and 7,000 likes in one year.

In the following months, more versions of the joke were shared on X / Twitter. For example, on May 25th, 2023, X^[5] user @stygiankore posted a meme that received over 1,000 reposts and 7,100 likes in one year (shown below, left). On July 4th, X user @pastapilled posted a version that received over 2,000 reposts and 19,000 likes in the same period (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References