Turning A Big Dial That Says "Racism" On It

About

Turning A Big Dial That Says "Racism" On It refers to a widely parodied Dril tweet that reads, "turning a big dial taht says 'Racism' on it and constantly looking back at the audience for approval like a contestant on the price is right." The tweet has been used as both a copypasta and phrasal template to joke about people, organizations and companies engaging in practices that are generally disliked in principle but can be popular when deployed in moderation.

Origin

On March 15th, 2017, @dril^[1] tweeted, "turning a big dial taht says 'Racism' on it and constantly looking back at the audience for approval like a contestant on the price is right." The tweet gained over 13,000 retweets and 39,000 likes in nearly seven years (shown below).

Spread

In the years following the tweet, its text was used as a snowclone to criticize companies engaging in what the posters' believed as negative practices. For example, on February 16th, 2019, Twitter user @Yuri_Librarian^[2] used it to criticize Atlus for engaging in what they deemed as transphobia, gaining over 260 retweets and 840 likes in nearly five years (shown below, top).

On October 5th, 2019, Twitter user @HypraSeaPea^[3] used it to mock two tweets from Nickelodeon accounts tweeting nostalgia bait, gaining over 100 retweets and 620 likes in four years (shown below, bottom).

The text continued seeing use through 2023. On July 1st, 2023, Twitter / X user @Jewthulhu^[4] posted it in response to Elon Musk tweets about altering Twitter, gaining over 30 retweets and 110 likes in three months (shown below, left). On August 13th, Twitter user @JoePostingg^[5] posted it in reference to a headline about Americans believing in creationism, gaining over 360 retweets and 6,900 likes in two months (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

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External References