About

What Is This I Don't Even is a popular catchphrase used on message boards in response to a post so shocking or stupid to express speechlessness. It may be repeated by others to incite more confusion for the lulz, but abusing the phrase is considered a punishable offense in some communities.

Origin

On April 26th, 2007, an anonymous Paheal^[1] user posted the earliest known usage of the phrase in the "source link" field of a Rule 34 post featuring the Family Guy character Meg and Lois having sex. In the source link field, the poster wrote, "What is this I don't even" (shown below).

Spread

Additionally, on April 26th, 2007, Urban Dictionary ^[2] user ryanxwonbin defined the phrase, "Internet meme used to indicate confusion." The post received more than 720 upvotes in less than 14 years (shown below).

Over the next few years, the phrase became a commonly used expression of surprise in response to a perplexing or disgusting image or video. On July 27th, 2009, for example, Yahoo Answers ^[4] user Julie asked the site, "I keep seeing "what is this i dont even" in replies on forums. Where did that even start? :/ I don't get it."

Weeks later, on August 7th, 2009, YTMND ^[3] JDalpha22 made a site with the phrase as title. The site received more than 16,000 views in less than 12 years (shown below, left) Later that month, on August 31st, 2009, an anonymous 4chan user posted the phrase in response to a photo of an elderly man waving in an ax in a frozen body of water (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References