About

Rawr XD is an expression combining the internet slang term "rawr" (an alternate spelling of "roar") with the emoticon XD. Online, the phrase is typically associated with emo teenagers and "LOL so random" humor.

Origin

Throughout the mid 2000s, the term "rawr" became widely associated with teenagers in the emo subculture, along with images defining the term as "'I love you' in dinosaur" (shown below, left). On July 12th, 2004, DeviantArtist^[9] SilentRepear uploaded an illustration of a dragon titled "OMG RAWR XD" (shown below, right).

Spread

On November 30th, 2015, Facebook^[4] user Bardock Obama posted a status update that "Rawr XD" means "'Ima eat ya ass' in dinosaur." Over the next year, the post gained over 4,900 likes, 600 shares and 330 comments. The same day, Twitter user @Trilluminaughty^[6] posted a emo version of the Confused Nick Young image captioned with a joke about catching an "emo girlfriend texting 'rawrrrrr xD'" (shown below).

On December 1st, Redditor Kleyar submitted a "Netflix and Chill": parody image macro titled "Rawr, XD _~nuzzlez~ :3" to /r/CringeAnarchy^[5] (shown below, left). On January 29th, 2016, Instagram user mrgiveyogirlback submitted a photoshopped picture of Donald Trump as a woman with the caption "'Rawr XD' Means / Make America Great Again in Dinosaur" (shown below, right).

On February 3rd, the donaldtrumpdoingthings Instagram^[8] posted a photoshopped image of Trump wearing pink hair and a "Daddy" collar with the caption "make Am3riica nuzzles :3 again* rawr xD" (shown below, left). On May 21st, Urban Dictionary user BigDickDaddyOG submitted an entry for "Rawr XD," defining it as "a term used by an emo fuckboy to hit on other emo girls" (shown below, right).

On June 6th, Steam Forums^[2] user Jason submitted a thread titled "What does 'rawr xd' mean?", to which user Kurt Cobain replied that it was usually used by "emo people." On July 15th, a thread titled "Any meme relating to "rawr XD" was created on the MyProAna Forums, to which several users replied with various image macros featuring the caption (shown below). On August 15th, Redditor Joey936 submitted a post titled "Rawr XD" to the /r/copypasta^[3] subreddit.

Search Interest

External References