About

So Uncivilized is a catchphrase and prequel meme referencing a scene in Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith where Obi-Wan Kenobi throws away a blaster after using it to kill General Grievous and says, "So uncivilized," referring to the blaster, which he thinks is uncivilized compared to lightsabers. The phrase first started to see use online as early as 2010 on 4chan, becoming further popularized through image macros and as a reaction image throughout the 2010s and 2020s.

Origin

In the 2005 Star Wars film Revenge of the Sith, Obi-Wan fights and kills General Grievous, landing the finishing blows with a blaster as opposed to his usual lightsaber. Obi-Wan tosses the blaster away after killing Grievous, saying, "So uncivilized" (shown below, left). This is likely a reference to Star Wars: Episode I, where an older Obi-Wan describes the lightsaber as "an elegant weapon for a more civilized age" (shown below, right).

The earliest known use of the phrase "so uncivilized" in direct reference to Obi-Wan was posted by an anonymous user of 4chan's^[1] /tv/ board on March 2nd, 2010 in response to a post asking for opinions on the "M41A Pulse Rifle," referencing Obi-Wan's opinion on blaster rifles. On December 23rd, 2012, Know Your Meme^[2] user wait wtf uploaded a GIF of the scene to the "reaction images" entry, marking the earliest known reaction GIF of the scene (shown below).

Spread

The meme spread over the following years, largely as an image macro format. On May 13th, 2018, a version of the meme was posted to /r/prequelmemes^[3] that garnered over 5,100 upvotes in five years. On April 13th, 2019, a meme using the format to criticize Rey's use of a blaster was posted to /r/prequelmemes,^[4] garnering over 25,300 upvotes in four years (shown below, left). On January 30th, 2020, a version of the meme about Minecraft was uploaded to /r/memes,^[5] garnering over 29,200 upvotes in three years (shown below, right).

On July 2nd, 2020, Redditor u/unicodePicasso posted a version of the meme to /r/memes^[6] that garnered over 31,000 upvotes in three years. On May 5th, 2022, the Star Wars Fans United Facebook^[7] page shared a meme about Obi-Wan's addition to Fortnite, garnering over 2,800 shares and 10,000 reactions in a year (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References