About

Sicko Mode or Mo Bamba refers to a cliché generally used to mock white people who consider themselves knowledgeable in hip hop then suggest listening to either "Sicko Mode" by Travis Scott or "Mo Bamba" by Sheck Wes, two of the most popular hip hop songs of late 2018 and early 2019, thus showing their surface-level knowledge of the genre.

Origin

The joke originated as part of the Know-it-all meme that was popular at the end of 2018. On December 18th, 2018, Twitter user @SanicGTGF^[1] posted an image of the Know-it-all character from Polar Express asking the question, gaining over 112,000 retweets and 439,000 likes (shown below).

Spread

This helped the joke spread, as many early variations used the Know-it-all character to make the joke. For example, on January 4th, 2019, YouTuber Joey Valence posted a remix of the scene making the joke, gaining over 947,000 views (shown below, left). User FriedFruitLoops gained over 540,000 views for making a similar joke on December 27th, 2018 (shown below, right).

Internet users used other formats to make the joke as well. For example, on December 25th, 2018, Redditor kohays posted a "Can we play Sicko Mode or Mo Bamba" starter pack to /r/starterpacks,^[2] gaining over 18,000 points (shown below, left). Redditor OddtayAckerpay posted a clip from Seinfeld to /r/memes_of_the_dank on December 21st, 2018 (shown below, right).

The phrase was added to Urban Dictionary on January 8th, 2019, though the first more sincere definition was added January 11th^[2] (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References