Vibe Check

About

Vibe Check is a slang term used to invite people to express their present emotional state. In September of 2019, the phrase began seeing use in ironic shitposts in which it was paired with a picture showing a violent act.

Origin

On April 18th, 2011, Urban Dictionary user rastabonez^[1] posted a definition of "vibe check" to the site, connecting the term to the way it's used in hippie subcultures.

A process by which a group or individual obtains a subjective assessment of the mental and emotional state of another person, place or thing. Not anchored in or limited to science, psychology or sociology. Grounded in a belief in pachouli, sage, or karma and sometimes veggie burgers.

Spread

On March 24th, 2019, Twitter user @umru_ tweeted, "vibe check?" The tweet received more than 180 likes in less than one year (shown below).

On April 2nd, 2019, Twitter user cake_hoarder^[4] posted "Vibe Check" to the site, marking one of the first times the phrase began spreading on social media.

The following month, on May 16th, Tumblr^[5] user songsofseparation posted two images, one of a person in sunglasses holding up their hand and another of a person sleeping with a hand on their face. They captioned the image, "Vibe check." The post received more than 47,000 notes in less than two years (shown below).

On September 3rd, 2019, Tumblr user starion^[2] posted a comic showing a man hitting another with a baseball bat while saying "vibe check," gaining over 30,000 notes (shown below).

The starion comic inspired further "vibe check" posts on Tumblr which paired the phrase with violent acts. For example, on Tumblr, user unfunyman posted a variation on September 15th in which a person yells "vibe check" at John F. Kennedy moments before he was assassinated, gaining over 1,000 notes (shown below, left). On September 14th, user thehistorychannel posted the joke with the final shot from The Blair Witch Project, gaining over 330 notes (shown below, right).

On Reddit, popular posts include a post by user ben648 in /r/comedyheaven that shows an edit of a Ctrl+Alt+Del comic, gaining over 790 points (shown below, left). The original edit was created by Tumblr user trans-madeline.^[3] User TheSapphicRaven made a post in /r/grandorder about Fate/Grand Order (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References