About

Trans People Can Double Jump is a catchphrase that developed out of the fandom for the video game Celeste after a Redditor made a Wow Cool Robot meme that implied the true "point" of Celeste was that "trans people can double jump," considering the game's protagonist, Madeleine, is canonically transgender. After being shared in late 2021, the phrase then spread among the trans community as it was referenced in numerous other memes over the following years.

Origin

On October 2nd, 2021, Redditor Meylody posted a "Wow, Cool Robot" edit to the /r/gamingcirclejerk^[1] sub that joked gamers missed the true point of Celeste, which is that "trans people can double jump." The post gained over 13,000 points in 18 months (shown below).

Spread

The catchphrase spread in the Celeste fandom and became a joke in the trans community. On January 18th, 2022, Twitter user @fleshbeast^[3] joked that "Doomguy" was also trans because he could double jump, gaining over 20 retweets and 150 likes in a year (shown below, left). On January 20th, user @ComfyBasilisk^[4] then quipped that the real lesson of Celeste was that trans people could directionally air dash, gaining over 120 retweets and 290 likes in a similar timeframe (shown below, right).

The catchphrase also extended to other fandoms and identities, with people claiming that certain identities have video game powers. On February 10th, 2023, Tumblr user vixivulpixel^[2] posted an edit to the original image that added Pizza Tower, gaining over 15,000 notes in one month (shown below, left). On March 1st, Twitter user @fenneon_sarah^[5] posted a picture joking that Madeleine and Bridget from Guilty Gear were making fun of her because she, a trans woman, couldn't double jump (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References