This Is 9/11 for X

About

This Is 9/11 for X and This Was My 9/11 are two catchphrases used in social media posts and memes in which users describe certain current events as "9/11" for a particular group of people or themselves. The humor of the phrasal templates is drawn from comically exaggerating the significance and traumatic impact of these events to the level that the September 11th terrorist attacks had on American society.

Origin

On January 3rd, 2022, Twitter^[1] user @lZZlPOP posted a photograph of Lorde in an unusual outfit, captioning the image, "This was my 9/11" (shown below, left). This is the earliest found notable tweet within the format, although prior examples may exist. On January 23rd, Twitter^[2] user @leoxeloo then quote tweeted a post about the hit song "The Middle," tweeting, "This was 9/11 for retail workers." The tweet received over 4,600 retweets and 56,100 likes, launching the trend.

Spread

In the following months, the catchphrase saw further use on Twitter, achieving virality by October 2022. For example, on April 18th, 2022, Twitter^[3] user @fellawhomstdve tweeted, "This is 9/11 for gamers" (tweet shown below, left). On July 9th, 2022, Twitter^[4] user @lajjsabat posted a tweet that garnered over 6,800 retweets and 120,000 likes in 11 months (shown below, right).

On October 12th, 2022, twelebs Corn and Kira both tweeted^[5][6] "this was my 9/11" jokes, which gained over 3,100 retweets and 23,900 likes and 2,000 retweets and 114,000 likes, respectively, in seven months (shown below, left and right).

The phrasal format maintained prevalence on Twitter through late 2022 and the first half of 2023.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References