About

That's Why He's The GOAT or That's Why He's The MVP is a viral video of a Black man excitedly yelling that an unknown person is the MVP and the goat, meaning "greatest of all time." The video was posted to YouTube in 2018 and gained viral spread in the following years through reposts and as a piece of reaction content. It became especially popularized on TikTok throughout the 2020s in edits and as a reaction in several trends, including the City Boy trend and the Ranking Every X trend.

Origin

On December 4th, 2018, YouTuber^[1] T M posted a video of a Black man yelling excitedly about someone unknown in a bedroom. He yells, "That's what I'm talking about! That's why he's the MVP! That's why he's the GOAT; the GOAT!" As he says "the GOAT," his body shakes with intensity. A Snapchat banner across the video reads, "Is this man okay??💀💀💀" so the video was presumably taken from Snapchat. It garnered over a million views in four years (shown below).

That's what I'm talking about! That's why he's the MVP! That's why he's the GOAT; the GOAT!

Spread

The video was reuploaded to YouTube numerous times over the following years and started to see use as a reaction meme around the early 2020s. For example, on November 29th, 2020, Twitter^[2] user and Rocket League player @Torment posted it, writing, "me watching @Turbopolsa play rn," garnering over 890 likes in two years.

It gained viral spread on TikTok in June 2022 when the City Boy trend became popularized, a trend where several reaction videos are used to celebrate men who coldly turn down women. On June 26th, YouTuber^[3] Tok Plugg posted a compilation of these videos featuring the reaction video several times, garnering over 300,000 views in three months (shown below).

The video became increasingly prevalent on TikTok over the following months as a way to hype up people as "the GOAT." On July 4th, 2022, TikToker^[4] @trixx_f1 posted a video that starts with the clip followed by footage of F1 racer Lewis Hamilton, garnering over 135,000 views in two months (shown below, left). In August, the video went viral as a reaction again in the "Ranking Every X" trend, where users post videos where they rank every entry in a given franchise using a different video (example shown below, right).

On August 22nd, YouTuber^[5] v1ncent 𒉭 posted an AMV using a mashup of the video with "The Grinch" by Trippie Redd, garnering over 9,000 views in a month (shown below).

Related Memes

City Boy

City Boy is a slang term used to describe men who don't let women stand in their way of money, success or living life how they want. The term originates from 2019's City Boy Summer trend and became popularized on TikTok in June 2022 through compilation videos where men are shown refusing women's advances, admitting to cheating on their girlfriends and acting in similarly "toxic" ways towards women, positive reaction videos playing afterward to hype the man up. "That's Why He's the GOAT" is one of the primary reactions used in the trend.

Ranking Every X

Ranking Every X is a trend where around five separate reaction videos are used to rate a given set of things, such as seasons of a TV show or video games in a series. The videos are sourced from EDP445, The Rock, The Boys, Cr1tikal and the viral "that's why he's the GOAT" video. The trend became increasingly popular in August and September 2022.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References