About

Turn 360 Degrees and Walk Away is a troll catchphrase that's often used as bait in online discussions where it is structured as a question-answer joke. The full joke introduces the question, "Why do they call it the Xbox 360?" with the answer "Because when you see it, you'll turn 360 degrees and walk away." The punchline is intentionally nonsensical because 360 degrees is a complete circle, meaning if you turn 360 degrees, you'll end up facing the same direction as before. When Microsoft revealed the name of their new console, some people were confused why they called it the "Xbox 360" instead of the "Xbox 2," so whenever anyone asks why this name was chosen, it's common for people familiar with the meme to reply with its punchline. Coinciding with the release of the console, the meme was popularized in 2006 and frequently used until dying off around 2014 with the next-gen Xbox One.

Origin

The earliest known instance of the phrase was posted on October 28th, 2006, on the 4chan board /v/ (Video Games) by an anonymous user. The thread begins with the original poster seemingly asking the question in earnest, before the second reply offers the meme's punchline as an explanation, derailing the thread entirely (seen below).

This exchange occurred at a time when the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 had both launched recently and console wars were commonplace on the site, with fans of the different systems arguing which was the best. Thus, it is possible that the original poster was a Nintendo or Sony fan trying to mock the system, but it's also possible he was fully aware of the nonsensical nature of the joke and was intentionally baiting other posters on the site.

Encyclopedia Dramatica^[1] corroborates /v/ as the place where the meme originated and claims that it spread from there to other boards on 4chan. Attempts have been made to make sense of the phrase, such as well-known depictions of Michael Jackson doing a 360-degree spin and then moonwalking away from the Xbox 360, using sprites from the Sega Genesis game Michael Jackson's Moonwalker (shown below).

Spread

Over the years, usage of the joke remained steady throughout the late 2000s and early 2010s. On December 19th, 2007, YouTuber GeorgeThePlushie^[4] uploaded a video of himself performing the joke, receiving nearly 13,000 views and 91 likes in roughly 13 years (shown below).

On November 19th, 2009, a user on Yahoo Answers asked why the Xbox 360 was called that, with the meme's punchline in the details section and the top answer explaining the name in earnest (seen below).^[2]

It's called a 360 because it was going up against the PS3 and Microsoft didn't want it to be the Xbox 2 as it would sound like it was a generation behind the Playstation. They came up with 360 as it was also the machine that would come full circle for Microsoft as the original console was sold as an experiment to get into the console market and this was the machine that had the true potential to take on Sony and Nintendo (at least that's what they thought at the time).

On January 12th, 2010, Redditor vladikov377 posted an image of a Facebook user making the joke on /r/gaming,^[3] receiving over 1,300 upvotes and 511 comments in six months (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References