About

Risk It All is a frequently used catchphrase used to express feelings of infatuation with another person, using the hyperbole of a willingness to give up everything, particularly a current relationship, for the love of another.

Origin

While the phrase "risk it all" predates the internet, one of the earliest known usages of it was posted by Twitter ^[1] user @kaliczi on April 29th, 2018 (shown below).^[1]

However, in the context of meme-ing, one of the earliest examples comes from a photograph of professional basketball player Carmelo Anthony looking at recording artist Rihanna who is looking toward the camera and does not see Anthony looking at her. On May 6th, 2014, Twitter^[2] user @Mariannoo shared the photograph from designer June Ambrose's Instagram and wrote, "Melo off the Henny & a few pulls of sour, ready to jeopardize it all." The tweet received more than 13,000 likes and 11,000 retweets in less than six years (shown below, left).

Hours later, Twitter^[3] user @_averyjordan retweeted the image, editing the caption to read, "Melo off that henny and a few pulls of sour ready to risk it all" (shown below, right).

Spread

Following the post, usage of the term continued to spread on Twitter. For example, on February 22nd, 2015, Twitter^[4] user @hardROClife tweeted a photograph of actor John Travolta staring at Benedict Cumberbatch with the caption "Travolta bout ready to risk it all." The tweet received more than 2,600 likes and 2,1000 retweets in less than six years (shown below).

The next five years saw more posts of this nature in which people caption photographs of others showing admiration for another "ready to risk it all." On December 7th, 2016, Twitter^[5] user @TheDrugTribe tweeted a picture of Santa Claus, "Santa is ready to risk it all." The tweet received more than 685 likes and 400 retweets in less than five years (shown below, left).

The following year, talk show host Desus Nice tweeted^[6] a photograph of a woman taking a picture of him and added the caption "Shorty ready to risk it all." The tweet received more than 19,000 likes and 5,000 retweets in less than three years (shown below, center).

On September 14th, 2019, Twitter^[7] user @chuuzus tweeted, "The Rihanna Effect: Rihanna having men who are in a relationship ready to risk it all for her." The tweet received more than 41,000 likes and 6,600 retweets in less than one year (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References