About

Wake Up Babe or Wake Up Babe, New X Just Dropped refers to a catchphrase and series of exploitable image macros and reaction images showing a man waking up his sleeping partner to tell her that a new piece of content (such as a song, post, etc.) has dropped. The memes often use the phrasal template "wake up babe, new X dropped," with "X" being the new piece of content. The format became popularized around May 2020 and remained prevalent over the following years, particularly in reference to musicians.

Origin

The earliest known meme to use the phrase "wake up babe" in reference to someone dropping new content was posted on July 31st, 2019, on the /r/sadboys^[1] subreddit by a now-deleted Redditor. The meme shows a man waking his sleeping wife up, captioned, "Niggas be like wake up babe! New Bladee" and garnered around 190 upvotes in four years (shown below, left). On May 7th, 2020, Twitter^[2] user @DeehsarZ posted a similar meme using a different stock image under a now-deleted Lil Uzi Vert tweet, captioned, "Wake up babe, new Uzi tweet," garnering just one like in three years. This is the earliest known meme to use the image, which would become the most common in the format going forward.

Spread

The meme spread over the following years as an exploitable reaction image, typically posted when someone drops new content, often a musical artist or influencer. On June 29th, 2020, Twitter^[3] user @CavaliersInFour posted a version of the meme under a now-deleted Kanye West tweet, garnering over 2,600 likes in three years (shown below, left). On September 8th, 2022, Instagram^[4] user the_political_compass posted a version of the meme referencing Queen Elizabeth II's death that gained over 30,100 likes in six months (shown below, right).

The phrase "wake up babe" also became popularized on its own alongside other images. For example, on September 28th, 2022, Instagram^[5] user ssgxnintendo shared a tweet using the phrase in reference to the announcement of the Pokemon Wiglett, garnering over 107,000 likes in six months (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References