We're All Trying To Find The Guy Who Did This

About

"We're All Trying To Find The Guy Who Did This" is a quote from the Netflix sketch comedy series I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson. The quote originates from a sketch where an unnamed man in a hot dog costume tries to pretend he is not the one who has crashed a hot dog-shaped car. The image of the man in the costume was widely used as a reaction image on Twitter and other websites in 2020 and early 2021, typically in response to complaints about problems from the people responsible for those problems.

Origin

The original image used in the meme comes from the TV show I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson, which premiered on April 23rd, 2019, on Netflix. The "Hot Dog Car" sketch was featured in episode five of the first season, and the catchphrase appears around the 1:26 mark in the clip (seen below).

In the sketch, a hot dog-shaped car crashes into a store and a man dressed in a hot dog costume attempts to pretend he is one of the customers wondering who was driving the car. The full quote from the man in the hot dog costume, played by creator, writer and star Tim Robinson, is, "We're all trying to find the guy who did this and give him a spanking!"

The earliest known example of this quote being used as a reaction image was on October 17th, 2019, when Twitter^[1] user @joesmith628 used it to reply to a tweet from director Duncan Jones (shown below, click to enlarge). Jones' original tweet^[2] involved Mike Pence saying "I need to be spanked and spanked hard," meaning that the reply was a direct reference to the sketch.

Spread

The reaction image grew in use on Twitter over the course of 2020, reaching its peak late in the year. On June 5th, 2020, journalist Dave Itzkoff quoted the sketch in reply to a video from the NFL's official Twitter account where Commissioner Roger Goodell said, "We, the NFL, condemn racism" (shown below).^[3]

Should’ve just put on a hot dog costume and said, “we’re all trying to find the guy who did this” https://t.co/mhe1K8HtLk

— Dave Itzkoff (@ditzkoff) June 5, 2020

Rebecca Onion wrote an article for Slate^[4] on August 18th that analyzed the meme's social value. Onion noted that when Donald Trump tweeted "SAVE THE POST OFFICE" on August 17th, an enormous number of users replied with the quote and image.^[5]

On December 3rd, Rep. Ilhan Omar used the image in reply to a tweet^[6] from Exxon Mobil, an oil conglomerate, saying they were "working collaboratively toward solutions to mitigate the risks of climate change" (shown below).

Various Examples

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Search Interest

External References